
Glass 

Book__ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



OLD KENTUCKY 



N 




Rkv. J. F. Cook, IJ,. J). 



FRONTISPIECE 



To 
Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, 

Scholar, Historian, Founder of the Filson Club and the 

highest type of a Kentucky Gentleman, who has done more 

to preserve the history of Kentucky than any other man 

living. 

The Author 



OLD KENTUCKY 



By 

Reverend J. F. Cook, LL. D. 




New York and Washington 

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1908 






\UB«ARY of OONQRESS 
I wo CoDies Kec«uv«« 

JUN 29^ 1908 



Copyright, 1908, by 
The Neale Publishing Company 



CONTENTS 

Page. 

Preface, 9 

Chapter. 

I Where and Who, 15 

II "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 38 

III The Negro in Kentucky, 58 

IV Misconceptions About Kentucky, 75 

V Difficulties, 97 

VI Social Life, no 

VII Home-Life, 124 

VIII Reminiscences, 134 

IX Kentucky's Pride in Her Men, 157 

X The Poetic Spirit, 170 

XI Clouds, 173 

XII Kentuckians and Bordermen, 183 

XIII Kentucky During the Civil War, 218 

XIV Kentucky, Her History and Her People, . . 229 
XV The Home-Coming, 257 



PREFACE 

In 1788 the savage Indians roamed almost at will 
all over the territory now known as Kentucky. In 
1792 Kentucky was admitted as a State of the Union. 
Nothing in the history of this country, and perhaps 
of the world, shows such rapid development of a 
people In founding settlements and making homes for 
their families. It seems almost like a fairy tale. It 
is safe to say that no State in the American Union 
has had such a unique history as Kentucky. It has 
no parallel. And this progress was accomplished by 
the most fearful sacrifices, the most heroic actions, 
and the history of it all is written in blood. All 
things considered, there is no population similar to 
the people who accomplished these results. 

Tennessee was very much like Kentucky, and it is 
to be hoped that some of her sons will put in perma- 
nent and compact form a history of her achievements 
as I am trying to do for my native State. It goes 
without saying that the Kentuckians have always been 
considered a peculiar people, and wherever they are 
found they still manifest the characteristics of their 
ancestors. 

No people are more proud of their native State 
than are the Kentuckians, and this is well. Men who 
have no pride of ancestry or devotion to their homes 
can never accomplish much. The majority of the 
hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians scattered 
throughout the country have, from tradition and 
otherwise, some knowledge of the achievements of 
their forefathers, but nowhere can be found in con- 
cise form a book which will verify all their claims. 
And nothing can be of more value to Kentuckians, or 



lo Old Kentucky 

to others who want to know these facts and have 
them in compact form, than such a book if properly 
prepared. 

In this work there is no fiction, no guessing. The 
facts are presented and may be relied upon. The 
peculiar characters and characteristics of the State 
have been faithfully portrayed, from the negro and 
the poor white people, to the most exalted citizen; 
the mode of life, superstitions, and peculiarities from 
the most humble to the highest have been touched 
upon. 

In the beginning the task of preparing such a book 
seemed more than I cared to undertake; but as the 
work progressed it became a real pleasure, and 
brought up old memories that made me feel almost 
like a boy again mingling with his own people. I 
wish to acknowledge the pleasure received from 
very kind letters written by many of the most emi- 
nent men of the nation to encourage me to undertake 
and accomplish this work. From General Bell, the 
chief of staff of the Army, from the President of the 
United States, from Justice Harlan of the Supreme 
Court, from governors and most distinguished men, I 
received kind and almost affectionate replies to every 
letter that I addressed, with one exception. 

If the work accomplishes what I intended it to do 
It will not have been in vain. The main design has 
been to paint Kentucky, to hold up her virtues, to 
unite her sons in a higher estimate of what the State 
has been and is, and to lead their children to a strenu- 
ous effort to live lives becoming the descendants of 
such people. 

After having spent half of my life in college work, 
I retired In order that I might enjoy social life and 
the pleasure derived from general reading. It was 
known among many of my personal friends that I 



Preface 1 1 

was the connecting link between this generation and 
my people, who went to Kentucky before it was ad- 
mitted as a State; that I was thoroughly imbued with 
the Kentucky spirit, and that I had been reared 
among those who took the most active part in the 
winning of Kentucky and in its settlement. Many 
prominent men, some of whom were not Kentuckians, 
urged me to write a book of reminiscences bringing 
out the characteristics of old-time Kentuckians, and I 
decided to write a monologue, anonymously, to please 
friends and as a pleasant employment during my 
leisure hours. 

This undertaking was almost completed, when I 
decided, upon consultation with friends, to write a 
book of more permanent value. Many beautiful 
stories have been told of Kentucky life; but nothing, 
so far as I know, has been put in permanent form to 
give such information as ought to be given to the 
people of Kentucky or other people having an interest 
in the history of the State. 

At this time "The Winning of the West" fell into 
my hands, and I found that the distinguished author 
of that work had taken more pains to show the char- 
acter and struggles of the Kentuckians and the 
bordermen than had the author of any other work. 
"The Winning of the West" is of thrilling interest, 
and has done more to show in a true light what Ken- 
tucky has done in the winning of the West than have 
all the histories of the State. It is a book written by 
an honest, disinterested, capable man, who has taken 
more pains to give references and to substantiate his 
facts than any Kentuckian has even done. Had a 
native of the State cited such facts as are brought out 
in "The Winning of the West," multitudes of people 
would have said it was simply the boastings of a Ken- 
tuckian. My admiration for the man who had done 



12 Old Kentucky 

such service for Kentucky and Kentuckians was very 
great. I threw the old manuscript aside, and desired 
even more to produce something of more permanent 
vakie. It occurred to me that if I could make free 
use of "The Winning of the West" there would be 
little use for any other historic statements than could 
be found in that work. 

In a kind personal letter from President Roosevelt 
he gave his consent that I make free use of anything 
he had written, and authorized me to use it at will. 
I determined, instead of quoting him at different 
points, to put the statements that I wished to use in a 
chapter by themselves; and while, necessarily, there 
is some little lack of connection in the statements used, 
it makes a most valuable chapter, and will be accepted 
in fullest confidence. I wish here to express tO' Presi- 
dent Roosevelt my sincere thanks for the inspiration 
his book has given me and for his kind and cordial 
consent to the free use of it. Were it in place here, 
I could express my highest admiration for him as a 
man, for I consider him one of the most remarkable 
characters that ever filled the chair of Chief Execu- 
tive; able, bold, and independent, one who, in all his 
convictions, can be trusted. I speak this, not as a 
politician, for I have always been a Democrat of the 
old school. But his worth compels unbounded admi- 
ration. 

It was my purpose to close the book at the period 
of the civil war, and to tell simply of old Kentucky 
times. But after thought, it seemed that this would 
leave the book incomplete, and would leave out a 
large part of the achievements of the State. 

It was thought, too, that it would add interest to 
sketch the progress of the State from the earliest 
times to the end of the first century of her existence. 
Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, the 



Preface 13 

founder of the Filson Club, who, President Roose- 
velt says, "possesses the most complete library in the 
world on all subjects connected with Kentucky his- 
tory," agreed to furnish a brief sketch of Kentucky's 
progress during the first hundred years of her history. 
It gives me pleasure to say that I think no man living 
could have done It better than Colonel Durrett, and 
I wish to extend to him my hearty thanks for what 
he has done to give value to this book. 

All of Kentucky history is not confined within the 
geographical limits of the State. In a large measure, 
Missouri character in the early days was but an out- 
growth of Kentucky character, for Missouri is a part 
of Kentucky as Kentucky is a part of Virginia. The 
three States stand in the relation of mother, daughter, 
and granddaughter. It was determined to trace Ken- 
tucky influence upon Missouri, and for this work I 
selected Ex-Gov. Thos. T. Crittenden. Governor 
Crittenden comes from one of the most distinguished 
families of Kentucky, he Is one of the most elegant 
gentlemen who ever went out from the State, and he 
Is familiar with the history of both States. Governor 
Crittenden has extensive acquaintance, having served 
In the United States Congress as long as he wanted 
to, having served Missouri as Governor In a very Im- 
portant period of the State's history, and having 
represented this countrv as Minister to Mexico. But 
when the matter for the book was all put together 
It was found the volume would be too large and that 
full iustice could not be done to Missouri ; so I de- 
termined to save Governor Crittenden's manuscript 
entire, and to use It In a book I have In preparation, 
''Old Missouri, or The Pikers." 

In order to show his Interest In this undertaking, 
Hon. Champ Clark contributes a chapter on^ "Ken- 
tucky During the Civil War," especially to bring out 



14 Old Kentucky 

the character of one of Kentucky's most honored 
sons, Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court. 

One of the most noted social gatherings ever held 
in this countiy was the Home-Coming held at Louis- 
ville; and it was felt that the book would be incom- 
plete were not mention made of this. It was thought 
that many of the speeches made on that occasion 
ought to be preserved; and in order that the book 
might not be too large, I laid aside a large part of 
my manuscript to give way to these things that ought 
to be kept as a perpetual memorial. 

The part I have taken in this book is largely to 
represent Kentucky character. It was understood 
among us all that no effort should be made at literary 
display and that the style should be conversational. 
I have tried to say what I had to say as would an 
old-time Kentuckian, a plain, home-like fellow, with- 
out display. So I have no apology to offer for the 
style in which I have written my part of the book. 



CHAPTER I 

WHERE AND WHO 

Kentucky has been called the Scotland of America ; 
and, everything considered, not without reason. 
When we come to consider the question of who the 
earlier settlers were, it will be clearly seen that the 
Scotch-Irish had much tO' do in the formation of Ken- 
tucky character. In resources, climate, and natural 
surroundings Scotland has nothing to compare with 
this wonderland; while Scotland has wilder and more 
striking scenery, Kentucky has enough of natural 
beauty to awaken every sentiment inherent in the 
bosom of noble people, and to call forth their best 
energies. Nature seems to have left nothing to be 
desired in this fruitful, beautiful land — "The Dark 
and Bloody Ground." 

Every part of the State has some attractive scenic 
feature. From the mountains on the east side to the 
beautiful green river country; from the diversified 
and attractive counties along the Ohio River to the 
southern border there are found resources ample to 
produce the greatest comforts of civilized life: en- 
chanting scenery, rich valleys, sparkling waters, rich 
soil and kind climate, adapted to the culture of every- 
thing that produces wealth and comfort, — hemp, 
tobacco, corn, fruit of the finest, rich grass, fine herds. 
But why try to describe an indescribable land? 
Travel through all the States and you will find only 
one Kentucky. 

Our study of early Kentucky life will be confined 
principally to the blue-grass section, of which we 
know the most; and in that section perhaps, all things 



1 6 Old Kentucky 

considered, will be found the conditions and charac- 
teristics that have rendered the State most known. 

In the eastern and southeastern parts are wild 
mountains; and here may be found people who for 
generations have had their homes and loved them — 
men as bold, untamed, and rugged as any in the 
Highlands of Scotland. They are not robbers or out- 
laws, but from long residence there, cut off from the 
outside world, and intermarried until families are like 
clans, grudges have been handed down, until they 
give rise to feuds and often to bloodshed. The 
people are hospitable, and as ready to defend them- 
selves and their honor — or supposed honor — as the 
Campbells or McGregors in their native Highlands. 
The faults of the mountaineers have been magnified; 
and many outsiders have judged Kentucky character 
from these people. Though the tide of a high civili- 
zation has swept around them, they yet have feuds 
and bloodshed which have rendered them famous — 
or infamous — as viewed from more peaceful sur- 
roundings. They have fine physiques, and many have 
brain-power of no mean order. These mountaineers 
constitute one type of the Kentuckian; and while 
they are tO' be admired in some respects and pitied in 
others, all the people of the State cannot be judged 
by them. 

The State, as a whole, as we have said, is wonder- 
fully beautiful and diversified. On the north is the 
smooth-flowing Ohio, into which numerous bright 
streams and small rivers pour their waters, gathered 
from hills and myriads of living springs. No' part 
of Kentucky is without springs, living springs — the 
joy of the people who drink their waters. The mur- 
muring brooks and sparkling little rivers, full of 
fish, — where many a congressman, senator, or gov- 
ernor of other States lingered in boyhood, fished, and 



Where and Who 17 

learned to swim, — are a delight. One of the most 
beautiful streams in the country is the Kentucky 
River. It comes gliding down from the mountains, 
dancing through rugged cliffs, romantic hills, and 
flowering vales like a graceful, happy maiden out on 
a May morning rejoicing amid charming scenes. 
Nature placed everything in Kentucky to support and 
enrich her inhabitants; and the best people naturally 
went there. 

Whether heredity or environment has most to do 
with character is a question as yet unsettled, but 
nothing is truer than the law of "Kind after its 
kind"; everywhere In nature this Is seen, In herds. In 
flocks. In fruits and flowers. And in considering 
human beings, heredity must be taken Into account. 
As a rule, the Kentucklans of the first generation 
were tall, vigorous, athletic, fearless, and hospitable, 
and their fathers were such — no other class of men 
could have endured what they did. The State was 
cut off from the seaboard and from the original thir- 
teen States by dark and gloomy mountains. To get 
to Kentucky Immense and dark forests, seeming with- 
out limit, were to be traversed. Wild beasts were to 
be encountered, and fiercer than beasts were the mur- 
derous, brutal Indians. Cowards, weaklings, and im- 
becile men dared not approach this unknown land; 
such could never have taken and held It. Unmen- 
tionable outrages upon men, women, and children 
aroused the worst passions, and called Into action 
every nerve of brave manhood. 

Some sentimentalists will say that the whites had 
no right to go there to Invade the Indian's country. 
Why? Was Kentucky claimed by any one tribe of 
Indians? Did any tribe own the country or have a 
right there? It was common ground, made by the 



1 8 Old Kentucky 

Creator, and from time immemorial it was free to 
any who might be able to occupy it — a common, free 
hunting-ground. It was full of game; its rich soil 
furnished food for every species of wild animal, and 
when, in winter, the prairies west of the Ohio failed, 
the rich, inexhaustible supplies of the blue-grass 
region furnished abundance. 

As soon as it was generally known what there was 
in Kentucky to render home-making the most delight- 
ful, — though everything possible to endure, — the 
bravest, strongest, most home-loving people were 
anxious to go there and build homes. On the one 
hand everything to dread, everything to endure, 
every privation to be anticipated — ^yet men were 
ready to shoulder the gun and axe, to leave their old 
home surroundings and seek this new land of promise. 
The women who went with them were braver, more 
self-sacrificing, and heroic than the men; for they 
saw that they were liable to suffer more, to endure 
tortures that men could not, in nature, have to endure. 
And many of them did endure hardships that cannot 
be imagined, and some of them endured unmention- 
able tortures when captives of the most brutal creat- 
ures known to history. Yet they were willing to 
leave homes, parents, girlhood friends, and make 
their way with their husbands and little children to 
the far-off land. And it is astonishing how rapidly 
the territory was filled, how soon these backwoods 
people won it from the savages and placed it among 
the sister States of the country, and how much they 
did to make possible the settlement of the great West 
and Northwest. 

Of course, Kentucky alone did not do all this. 
Tennessee, like a twin sister, aided her, and without 
one the other could never have done it. This govern- 
ment owes to these two States, more than to all the 



Where and Who 19 

others, the winning of the great Southwest; and with- 
out them, when the War of the Revolution was over, 
the boundary of the nation would scarcely have been 
beyond the Ohio River, and it might have been a long 
time before the great Louisiana Purchase could have 
been made. Daniel Boone first entered Kentucky in 
1769, but it was some years after that before he 
brought his family to the State and established 
Boonesboro. In less than twenty years, in 1792, Ken- 
tucky was admitted into the Union; and grand Isaac 
Shelby, the Indian-fighter, hero, and statesman, was 
made Governor. While it took the colonies on the 
Atlantic seaboard more than a century and a half to 
spread from the ocean to the Alleghanles, these back- 
woodsmen, almost single-handed, with no regular 
troops or government support, fighting almost as in- 
dividuals, held together only by common interest and 
love, drove back the very flower of Indian warriors, 
commanded by the most skillful chiefs, and in less 
than one generation had hewn down forests, builded 
their simple homes, and won their State, now, as then, 
recognized as one of the loveliest in the Union. 

Who were the early settlers of Kentucky? We 
shall try to give reliable information, and will give 
historical facts, though this is not to be a histor\\ 
To my mind there are certain things to be taken into 
account when one would form a just appreciation of 
a people — their surroundings, and the time in which 
they liv^ed. 

What I shall say here may be considered a digres- 
sion, but it is on my mind to say it. The first thing 
is, that after careful and extended reading of history 
for half a century I have reached the conclusion that 
history cannot be understood without taking into con- 
sideration the wise, guiding, and inscrutable ways of 
the Providence that has developed and led the human 



20 Old Kentucky 

race. From the human standpoint many things in the 
development of the race cannot be understood. It 
seems that the Almighty, on this little planet among 
all the magnificent worlds he has made, may be giving 
lessons to the inhabitants of other worlds on the ter- 
rible effects of sin. It may at least be hoped that no 
other world has had so sad a history. The human 
race has been developed, scattered, civilized, all by 
means of war and bloodshed, aided by Christianity. 
In the beginning of human history we find that 
man became a sinner; and God chose "a peculiar 
people" through whom he might reveal himself 
to the world. In the course of time these people 
were permitted for one hundred years to become 
slaves in Egypt, then perhaps the most progressive 
of any of the people of the earth. The Hebrews 
had been promised the beautiful land of Palestine 
and had been held back from possession of it 
because of their sin and rebellion, yet God in- 
tended them to occupy it. When the Israelites went 
out of Egypt from slavery they were not fitted to 
become immediately what it was purposed they 
should be. For forty years they were kept in tutelage 
in the wilderness, until all that generation except two 
of the slaves and Idolaters perished. During these 
forty years the grandest laws that man was ever per- 
mitted to know were given to the great law-giver of 
the Hebrews, and when the time came for the new 
generation to enter Into the promised land they were 
led by the guidance of the Almighty to dispossess and 
destroy a wicked and Idolatrous people that held the 
land as mere squatters, and there never was a word 
said, or the question raised as to their right to drive 
out those who used their splendid possessions and op- 
portunities for crime and Idolatry. The people that 



Where and Who 21 

went in to take Canaan were a chosen people, selected 
for that very purpose. 

Later there was a great contest as to whether the 
East and the hordes of Asia should hold control over 
Europe. Greece had at an early time stood as a bul- 
wark, and all of Alexander's conquests were doubt- 
less guided by a higher wisdom than his, for many of 
his victories seemed miraculous. Then the Roman 
Empire assumed its place, and it was a question for a 
long time whether the hordes of Asia would succeed, 
or whether Carthage or Rome should assume the 
ascendancy. At the introduction of Christianity it 
was destined to be a world-governing influence, and 
there is nothing in history from that time to this that 
has not in some way been directed by its influence. 
Northern Europe and the British Isles, which were 
to furnish the people to possess and dominate the 
world, were filled with rude and almost uncivilized 
men, and it was the mission of Christianity to fit 
them for their great destiny. 

When in the fifth century the Roman power seemed 
to expire in Europe, some thought that it meant the 
extinction of civilization and that the treasures of the 
Old World were destroyed. They thought men had 
to take a new start, had to lay anew the foundations 
for civilization; but this was not true, for the valu- 
able accumulations of antiquity escaped harm and 
sooner or later became the possessions of ages to 
come. The catastrophe to the Roman Empire simply 
prepared for the shifting of the scene of civilization 
from the south to the north of Europe, and gave the 
intellectual prominence from one branch of the Aryan 
family to another. It was simply the smothered 
flame that was to burst forth anew, but it all had to 
be connected with Christianity. The Roman Catholic 
Church had her share in resisting Asiatic idolatry, 



22 Old Kentucky 

and in her conflict with Mohammedanism she stood 
as a bulwark, receiving into her system, which became 
known as the Holy Roman Empire, much that she 
acquired from the old Roman Empire; and though 
she had but recently put before it the word "Holy," 
it was a mingling of some of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity with much of the teaching of the old empire. 
As has been said, "The fallen Dragon was set up 
again in his place." "The papacy," as Hobbs says, 
"was the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire 
crowned, and sitting upon the grave thereof." The 
Roman laws have had much tO' do in making up the 
laws of nations. Palgrave said, "No European law- 
yer has failed to profit by Rome's written wisdom." 

One word in regard to the Teutons, who were in- 
fluenced by the accumulation of wisdom gathered 
from these two nations — "contributed to these world 
treasures the very grand thing we call civilization." 
They were poor in what the Romans considered 
wealth, they had not literature or science; but they 
had what was better, a virtuous manhood, and on ac- 
count of this personal worth they transmitted to their 
posterity the influence that built up great nations. 
They possessed what really is the foundation of all 
personal worth; they had manhood, capacity for civ- 
ilization, love of personal freedom, independence, 
and reverence for womanhood. They had good an- 
cestry, and they were not city-loving people. They 
loved the country. Tacitus says, "They dwelt scat- 
tered and separate, as a spring, a meadow or a grove 
may chance invite them." They reverenced their 
women, and Tacitus says of the Germans that they 
deemed womanhood to be sacred. These sentiments 
create the purity and the sanctity of the home, and 
no nation can long survive that does not have such 
sentiments. Whenever womanhood is degraded, and 



Where and Who 23 

the marriage tie made of straw and divorces are 
easily obtained, that people is on the road to ruin. 

While much can be said of the cruelty, oppression, 
and barbarities practiced by the Roman Church, 
without question Providence used it, as an organiza- 
tion, for political development; but the time has 
come in this civilization when that system is not 
needed. 

Once more, while in many respects Mohammedan- 
ism has been a wonderful monstrosity, and the Arabs 
have been regarded by us as a wild, barbarous, and 
fanatical system, it has had its uses. Even the Sara- 
cen conquests brought home some blessings in their 
train. They spread the language of Arabia from 
the Euphrates valley to Northern Africa, and it be- 
came the preeminent speech and has remained such 
up to the present time, and their language and litera- 
ture has done much for the learning, literature, and 
science of the world. In the dark ages, when litera- 
ture and learning were scarcely known in Europe, 
the Moors held a large part of Spain nearly eight 
hundred years during which time they brought the 
country occupied by them to the highest state of 
cultivation and beauty. The kingdom of Granada, 
naturally fertile, came through their industry and 
their skill to be one of the best cultivated and richest 
districts in Spain. It had seventy walled towns be- 
sides the capital, Granada, a rich and prosperous city 
with a population of a quarter of a million, enriched 
with superb buildings of Moorish architecture. In 
the kingdom were schools and colleges and, as I re- 
member, it was the only place in Europe at that time 
where arts, science, literature, and language were 
taught. 

But to come back to Kentucky. Who were these 
early bordermen? There is nothing more evident 



24 Old Kentucky 

than that North America was destined to become a 
great rallylng-ground for the best people, people who 
came out to possess and to cultivate the country, and 
to send out streams of light to the ends of the world, 
not only in business, but In teaching the nations of 
the earth what man may do In the manly work of 
carrying the light of Christianity. There came from 
Europe a class of people that had been in some meas- 
ure like the Children of Israel in Egypt, slaves of op- 
pression. They had come out to be free, but the 
first generations did not understand what the word 
meant. They seemed to think that freedom meant 
freedom to the ruling class but oppression to those 
who did not agree with them. 

The hardy settlers of the seaboard had to live 
under hard conditions. Our old Pilgrim fathers and 
their descendants were a body of noble men, though 
they possessed then, as they do to-day, peculiar 
traits. But with some exceptions the hard conditions 
of their lives made them penurious and selfish, and 
they were satisfied for one hundred and fifty years to 
live along the seaboard, knowing little about the 
West and caring less, only so far as they could make 
money trading with the Indians. Even to the time of 
the Revolutionary war and after the ratification of 
the Constitution, some of them thought their States 
ought to secede If the great West was admitted Into 
the national family. And In the convention, when 
the Southerners, Thomas Jefferson at the head, were 
fighting to destroy slavery, they failed by the vote of 
one eastern "Nobody," as Roosevelt calls him. 

Who would believe that so noble a character as 
Roger Williams, contending for soul-liberty, should 
be driven out of Massachusetts and made to go Into 
the wilderness with the Indians, who showed him 
more kindness than his own race? 



Where and Who 25 

Finally, the oppression of England began to 
awaken the minds of men, and a body of men were 
selected "for the very purpose of crossing the moun- 
tains and risking life and all in winning for the gov- 
ernment the territory and lands," selected to seek out 
the Palestine of America. They wrought better than 
they knew. Little did those old pioneers that crossed 
the mountains know what their efforts and sacrifices 
would mean to this great country. They were gath- 
ered together for this very purpose; they were given 
the disposition and ability to accomplish these results. 
And my answer to the question as to who those early 
pioneers were, is, they were me7i and women selected 
by divine wisdom and goodness to open up and pro- 
vide homes for us here to-day, who do not hold these 
pioneers as we should, in loving and sacred remem- 
brance. 

The history of all civilized nations shows that there 
has been a guiding hand in Providence that directs in 
the founding of these nations and in their develop- 
ment. And strange as it may seem, most of the de- 
velopment of nations has been through war. Though 
the wars that Napoleon waged seemed bloody and 
the result of a mad ambition, the result was the 
breaking up, in a large measure, of the Feudal sys- 
tem, the destroying of little principalities, so that na- 
tions might grow. The English-speaking people 
have been guided by the directing hand of the infin- 
itely Wise One, and there has been no war that the 
American people have been engaged in that has not 
preceded advancement in both culture and civiliza- 
tion, though those who have engaged in them have 
suffered untold trials and privations. Daniel Boone 
said that he was the instrument ordained of God to 
settle in the wilderness. We might make it wider 
than this and say that God ordained the instrumen- 



26 Old Kentucky 

tality for the settling and development of this great 
nation that is destined to bring civilization, liberty, 
and happiness to the nations of the earth. He seems 
to have reserved the land that this nation to-day 
holds for the development of a people who will be 
largely instrumental in carrying the gospel of peace 
and love to all the nations of the earth. 

It is clearly seen from history that the little State 
of Kentucky, next to the smallest of the Southern 
States, with about forty thousand square miles, has 
contributed very largely to the development of this 
country. She has furnished the President of the 
Southern Confederacy and the President of the Fed- 
eral Government, as well as many of the most able 
generals and statesmen of the age of Davis and Lin- 
coln. Ninety-six Kentuckians have served other 
States in Congress. Missouri alone has sent twenty 
former Kentuckians to the House of Representatives, 
and eight to the Senate; while eight of her governors 
have been native Kentuckians. She has sent out doc- 
tors, ministers of the Gospel, and multitudes of fam- 
ilies of high social rank that have made their im- 
press upon other States. She seemed destined to do 
a great work not only for the people that remained 
in her borders, but for the people of other South- 
western States, and even in the great Northwest. 
Wherever they are found, Kentuckians have remark- 
able characteristics, and have commanded the re- 
spect of the people with whom they have associated. 
"My Old Kentucky Home" is sung in all the States 
to the Pacific by those who' learned to love their old 
home in their childhood. 

But to return to the question of who those Ken- 
tuckians were. They were a select people selected 
out of the various nations, who' were especially 
adapted for the work they were to da. There is no 



Where and Who 27 

nation that has not had adventurous, bold, brave, 
praying men; and the tendency In all nature Is for 
kind to seek Its kind. Put a dozen kinds of fish In a 
stream, and according to their nature will they as- 
sociate together. Some will He sluggishly on the bot- 
tom, some will seek the brightest, clearest spots, and 
delight In catching flies from the surface. Game fish 
flock together. It Is so with birds; they live on dif- 
ferent kinds of food. The carrion crow will set 
about to find a carcass; the eagle delights in the 
wild flights from his cllfi^s, and In the struggle which 
he makes for his game. Each one seeks the surround- 
ings best adapted to it. The peaceful songster de- 
lights In the shady groves; the stormy petrel in the 
wild storms of the ocean. 

So men follow out their tastes and seek their kind. 
The farmer loves his home, his fields, his flocks, and 
lives his fearless life, and thus unconsciously builds 
up the country. The blood-suckers of Wall Street 
seem never so' happy as when piling up the millions 
that industry has made, regardless of the woes or the 
welfare of their fellow-men. They are like wild 
beasts that come in and devour that which others 
have toiled for and obtained. The blood-sucker and 
the horse-leech must have food; the pain it causes 
the victim gives them no concern. 

The foregoing will prepare the way for a better 
understanding of the early settlers of Kentucky. In 
Providence the State had to be won and developed, 
and the Instrumentality was wisely chosen. Ken- 
tucky was settled principally In the beginning by men 
who loved freedom, who had lived God-fearing lives, 
and who wanted tO' be where they might gain homes, 
happiness, and freedom for themselves and their 
children. The seaboard was settled by people who 
thought they knew what the word Liberty meant; 



28 Old Kentucky 

but the history of New England, and even of Vir- 
ginia, shows how little they knew about it; and they 
were later shown that there was a higher conception 
of liberty than they had ever dreamed. New Eng- 
land whipped men at the post for freedom of speech; 
Virginia imprisoned men for preaching the gospel; 
and, in the fullness of time, it became necessary for 
people to be chosen, and by the power given them, 
tO' show what freedom meant. The Kentuckians were 
always freedom-loving people, a home-loving people, 
yet there is no war, from the Indian wars in the 
Northwest, and the wars on the Southern border, to 
those for the freedom of the Mississippi River, the 
accession of Texas, and for the development of the 
great West, in which her men have not taken a noble 
part. 

In order to produce men for this work there had 
to be peculiar characteristics and conditions. First, 
fearless hunters penetrated these mountains that cut 
Kentucky off from other States; they came back 
and told of the beautiful, lovely country they had 
found. Then settlers came, and gradually making 
their way in among the Indians, they too came back 
and told of the attractive land; and the tide of im- 
migration began to set in. And though at times It 
seemed that it was almost impossible to dispossess the 
Indian, yet they persevered; and it was but a his- 
tory of bloodshed from the first until as late as 1790 
or even later. There is no question as to the charac- 
ter of the early settlers of Kentucky, and no ques- 
tion that that attractive country called forth the best 
citizenship from those of other States, ninety per cent, 
of which, perhaps, came from Virginia. Virginia 
claimed that she owned Kentucky, and with very 
great reluctance she let the Kentucky people set 
up for themselves. For the first few years Ken- 



Where and Who 29 

tucky was under the dominion of Virginia, and 
even had representatives in her legislature. While 
we have said that Kentucky had picked men 
from different nations, it seems clear that her 
hest type came from Scotland and Ireland; yet 
there was a great mixture of English stock. Apart 
from written histoiy, there are various ways 
by which one may tell what a people are; 
take the literature, the sayings, the proverbs, 
and traditions of a people, and you can form a 
fairly good estimate of their ancestors. In study- 
ing Kentucky and her people, it is remarkable how 
many of these traits can be traced directly back to 
Scotland. In reading Scott's novels you will be 
constantly reminded of the old-time speech of the 
Kentuckians; and even in private life, among 
people who perhaps have never read one of Scott's 
works, but have acquired them from the sayings of 
their ancestors, you will hear those same expressions. 
The Kentuckian's love of home and home-life re- 
minds one of the highest civilization of England, and 
their love of liberty and of absolute freedom of ac- 
tion, their fearless disposition, their quickness to de- 
fend themselves, their pride of home and ancestry, 
their very clannishness reminds one of Scotland. 

Was it the surroundings that developed Kentucky 
character, or was it heredity? Doubtless both had 
their influence, but there is no doubt that heredity 
had the greater. No beauty or wealth of country- 
can make an Indian anything but an Indian; nor can 
unlimited resources or beauty of surroundings ever 
make of a beast anything but a beast. The Holland- 
ers, though a noble people, could never have made 
Kentucky what it has been or what it is; nor can I 
conceive of any one nationality alone that could have 
done it. They had to be picked men, and they 



30 Old Kentucky 

were — men that God Almighty selected from every 
place to go in and do the work that they did. 

Kentucklans believe greatly in heredity, both in 
men and animals; and they have never been able, 
with all their fine blue-grass and clear water, to de- 
velop a thoroughbred race horse from a donkey 
or a plug. The laws that govern the transmission of 
hereditable characteristics are generally unknown; 
but the number of inhereditable deviations and pe- 
culiarities of temperament are endless. Men who 
breed horses and cattle are satisfied that the vigor, 
fleetness, and other qualities of a dam and sire are 
hereditable. Theoretical writers alone have doubted 
the fact. Darwin considered that the correct way 
of viewing the subject is to look at inheritance of the 
character rather as the rule, and non-inheritance the 
exception. Sometimes character is inherited from 
remote ancestors; some persons are more like their 
great-grand-parents than like their own parents. Men 
have theorized and guessed and scientists have tried 
to explain, but it is a fact that the offspring have the 
characteristics even in small things of their forbears. 
It is usually thought to be a safe rule to lay down that 
children inherit from the stronger of the parents. 
Strong, vigorous parents bear strong, vigorous child- 
ren; brain-power is transmitted, as is seen in many 
families. Darwin noticed the very smallest things 
connected with the activity of mind and thought, and 
he reached the conclusion that children who had lost 
one of the parents, or both, whatever their surround- 
ings, even in the movements of their bodies, or in 
their habits, were influenced by their parents. Statis- 
tics in this country prove that characters are trans- 
mitted. It has been said that one old woman in New 
York had eighty-seven descendants, and there was 
not a virtuous woman or an honest man among them. 



Where and JFho 31 

The history of our country shows that some of her 
noblest men and women were left orphans and sub- 
ject to hardships and privations that would have over- 
come them had it not been that they had noble blood 
in their veins. Some families raise judges, some min- 
isters, some teachers, and some thieves. No amount 
of moral training can make a thief an honest man; 
and no amount of religious training can ever make 
an ungodly man a Christian. As a noted writer says, 
"A man's natural abilities are derived by inherit- 
ance." 

For two or three generations the Kentuckians 
SjCarcely mingled in marriage with the people from 
other States, and they intermarried, not in their own 
family or blood, but in other families in the State, 
perhaps even of different nationality, though always 
Kentuckians. The result was that these happy, brave, 
strong, healthy people founded large families of 
children that partook of the characteristics of their 
fathers and mothers. The descendants of such 
people, who came into enjoyment of comfortable 
homes, abundant and substantial food, and from 
childhood were taught to fear God, honor the Bible, 
respect the aged, to help the unfortunate, and to be 
scrupulously honest and truthful, should be noble, 
honest men. And where you find the old Kentuckians 
you are apt to find them people worthy of their an- 
cestry. 

No writer on this subject have I found more pains- 
taking and fair than Theodore Roosevelt; and no 
one can accuse him of partiality, for he was not a 
Kentuckian. It will give me great pleasure to quote 
a part of what he has said in his "Winning of the 
West" in regard to the pioneers of Kentucky and 
their part in taking and holding the West. He has 
said it better than any one not so gifted, and a hun- 



32 Old Kentucky 

dred pages might be quoted from him in showing the 
character of these people and the value of their work, 
and the compliments he has paid to them as individ- 
uals and in communities. I know of no one who 
has taken so much pains to learn the facts concerning 
these people. Mr. Roosevelt says (Vol. i, pages 
132 et seq.) : 

"Along the western frontier of the colonies that 
were so soon to be the United States, among the foot- 
hills of the Alleghanies, on the slopes of the wooded 
mountains, and in the long trough-like valleys that 
lay between the ranges, dwelt a peculiar and char- 
acteristically American people. 

"These frontier folk, the people of the up-coun- 
try, or back-country, who lived near and among the 
forest-clad mountains, far away from the long- 
settled districts of flat coast plain and sluggish tidal 
river, were known to themselves and to others as 
backwoodsmen. They all bore a strong likeness to 
one another in their habits of thoughts and ways of 
living, and differed markedly from the people of the 
older and more civilized communities to the east- 
ward." 

Summing up, he says they were American people — 
they were a peculiar people, and their descendants 
have inherited many of their traits. I continue to 
quote (page 134) : 

"The backwoodsmen were Americans by birth and 
parentage, and of mixed race; but the dominant 
strain in their blood was that of the Presbyterian 
Irish — the Scotch-Irish as they were often called. 
Full credit has been awarded the Roundhead and 
Cavalier for their leadership in our history; nor have 
we been altogether blind to the deeds of the Hol- 
lander and the Huguenot; but it is doubtful if we 
have wholly realized the importance of the part 



Where and Who 33 

played by that stern and virile people, the Irish, 
whose preachers taught the creed of Knox and Cal- 
vin. These Irish representatives of the Covenanters 
were in the West almost what the Puritans were in 
the Northeast, and more than the Cavaliers were in 
the South. Mingled with the descendants of many 
other races, they nevertheless formed the kernel of 
the distinctively and intensely American stock who 
were the pioneers of our people in their march west- 
ward, the vanguard of the army of fighting settlers, 
who with axe and rifle won their way from the Alle- 
ghanies to the Rio Grande and the Pacific." 

Again (pages 141-147) : 

"A single generation passed under the hard condi- 
tions of life in the wilderness, was enough to weld 
together into one people the representatives of these 
numerous and widely different races; and the child- 
ren of the next generation became indistinguishable 
from one another. Long before the first Continental 
Congress assembled, the backwoodsmen, whatever 
their blood, had become Americans, one in speech, 
thought, and character, clutching firmly the land in 
which their fathers and grandfathers had lived 
before them. They had lost all remembrance of 
Europe and all sympathy with things European; they 
had become as emphatically products native to the 
soil as were the tough and supple hickories out of 
which they fashioned the handles of their long light 
axes. Their grim, harsh, narrow lives were yet 
strangely fascinating and full of adventurous toil 
and danger; none but natures as strong, as freedom- 
loving, and as full of bold defiance as theirs could 
have endured existence on the terms which these men 
found pleasurable. Their iron surroundings made 
a mould which turned out all alike in the same shape. 



34 Old Kentucky 

They resembled one another, and they differed from 
the rest of the world — even the world of America, 
and infinitely more the world of Europe in dress, 
in customs, and in mode of life. 

"Where their lands abutted on the more settled 
districts to the eastward, the population was of course 
thickest, and their peculiarities least. Here and 
there at such points they built small backwoods burgs 
or towns, rude, straggling, unkempt villages, with a 
store or two, a tavern — sometimes good, often a 
'scandalous hog-sty,' where travelers were devoured 
by fleas, and every one slept and ate in one room ; a 
small log schoolhouse, and a little church, presided 
over by a hard-featured Presbyterian preacher, 
gloomy, earnest, and zealous, probably bigoted and 
narrow-minded, but nevertheless a great power for 
good in the community. 

"However, the backwoodsmen as a class neither 
built towns nor loved to dwell therein. They were 
to be seen at their best in the vast, interminable for- 
ests that formed their chosen home. They won and 
kept their lands by force, and ever lived either at 
war or in dread of war. Hence they settled always 
in groups of several families each, all banded to- 
gether for mutual protection. Their red foes were 
strong and terrible, cunning in council, dreadful in 
battle, merciless beyond belief in victoi-y. The men 
of the border did not overcom.e and dispossess cow- 
ards and weaklings; they marched forth to spoil the 
stout-hearted and to take for a prey the possessions 
of the men of might. Every acre, every rood of 
ground which they claimed had to be cleared by the 
axe and held with the rifle. Not only was the chop- 
ping down of forests the first preliminary to cultiva- 
tion, but it was also the surest means of subduing the 
Indians, to whom the unending stretches of choked 



Where and JFho 35 

woodland were an impenetrable cover behind which 
to move unseen, a shield in making assaults, and a 
strong tower of defence in repelling counter-attacks. 
In the conquest of the West the backwoods axe, 
shapely, well-poised, with long haft and light head, 
was a servant hardly standing second even to the 
rifle; the two were the national weapons of the 
American backwoodsman, and in their use he has 
never been excelled. 

"When a group of families moved out into the 
wilderness they built themselves a station or stock- 
ade fort; a square palisade of upright logs, loop- 
holed, with strong block-houses as bastions at the 
corners. One side at least was generally formed by 
the backs of the cabins themselves, all standing in a 
row; and there was a great door or gate, that could 
be strongly barred in case of need. Often no iron 
whatever was employed in any of the buildings. The 
square inside contained the provision sheds and fre- 
quently a strong central block-house as well. These 
forts, of course, could not stand against cannon and 
they were always in danger when attacked with fire; 
but save for this risk of burning they were very ef- 
fectual defences against men without artillery, and 
were rarely taken, whether by whites or Indians, 
except by surprise. Few other buildings have played 
so important a part in our history as the rough stock- 
ade fort of the backwoods. 

"The families only lived in the fort when there 
was war with the Indians, and even then not in win- 
ter. At other times they all separated out to their 
own farms, universally called clearings, as they were 
always made by first cutting off the timber. The 
stumps were left to dot the fields of grain and Indian 
corn. The corn especially was the stand-by and in- 
variable resource ojF the Vvcstern settler; it was the 



36 Old Kentucky 

crop on which he relied to feed his family, and when 
hunting or on a war trail the parched grains were 
carried in his leather wallet to serve often as his only 
food. But he planted orchards and raised melons, 
potatoes, and many other fruits and vegetables as 
well; and he had usually a horse or two, cows, and 
perhaps hogs and sheep, if the wolves and bears did 
not interfere. If he was poor his cabin was made of 
unhewn logs, and held but a single room; if well-to- 
do, the logs were neatly hewed, and besides the large 
living and eating-room with its huge stone fireplace, 
there was also a small bedroom and kitchen, while a 
ladder led to the loft above, in which the boys slept. 
The floor was made of puncheons, great slabs of 
wood hewed carefully out, and the roof of clap- 
boards. Pegs of wood were thrust into the sides of 
the house, to serve instead of a wardrobe; and buck 
antlers, thrust into joists, held the ever-ready rifles. 
The table was a great clapboard set on four wooden 
legs; there were three-legged stools, and in the bet- 
ter sort of houses old fashioned rocking-chairs. The 
couch or bed was warmly covered with blankets, bear- 
skins, and deer-hides. 

"These clearings lay far apart from one another 
in the wilderness. Up to the door-sills of the log- 
huts stretched the solemn and mysterious forest. 
There were no openings to break its continuity; 
nothing but endless leagues on leagues of shadowy, 
wolf-hunted woodland. The great trees towered 
aloft till their separate heads were lost in the mass 
of foliage above, and the rank underbrush choked 
the spaces between the trunks. On the higher peaks 
and ridge-crests of the mountains there were strag- 
gling birches and pines, hemlocks and balsam firs; 
elsewhere, oaks, chestnuts, hickories, maples, beeches, 
walnuts, and great tulip trees grew side by side with 



Where and Who 37 

many other kinds. The sunlight could not pene- 
trate the roofed archway of murmuring leaves; 
through the gray aisles of the forest men always 
walked in a kind of a mid-day gloaming. Those 
who had hved in the open plains felt when they came 
to the backwoods as if their heads were hooded. 
Save on the border of a lake, from a cliff top, or on 
a bald knob — that is, a bare hill-shoulder — they 
could not anywhere look out for any distance. 

"All the land was shrouded in one vast forest. It 
covered the mountain from crest to river-bed, filled 
the plains, and stretched in sombre and melancholy 
wastes toward the Mississippi. All that it contained, 
all that lay hid within and beyond it, none could tell; 
men only knew that their boldest hunters, however 
deeply they had penetrated, had not yet gone through 
it, that it was the home of the game they fol- 
lowed and the wild beasts that preyed on their flocks, 
and that deep in its tangled depths lurked their red 
foes, hawk-eyed and wolf-hearted." 
And again he says (pages 170, 171) : 
"Thus the backwoodsmen lived on the clearings 
they had hewed out of the everlasting forest; a grim 
stern people, strong and simple, powerful for good 
and evil, swayed by gusts of stormy passion, the love 
of freedom rooted in their very heart's core. Their 
lives were harsh and narrow ; they gained their bread 
by their blood and sweat, in the unending struggle 
with the wild ruggedness of nature. They suffered 
terrible injuries at the hands of the red men, and on 
their foes they waged a terrible warfare in return. 
They were relentless, revengeful, suspicious, knowing 
neither ruth nor pity; they were also' upright, reso- 
lute, and fearless, loyal to their friends, and devoted 
to their country. In spite of their many failings, 
they were of all men best fitted to conquer the wilder- 
ness and hold it against all comers." 



CHAPTER II 

''uncle tom's cabin'' 

The question has been often asked, why Ken- 
tucklans, who are sO' fond of hberty and defend their 
freedom with such vigor, were slaveholders? Per- 
haps there has been more prejudice against them on 
this account than on any other, for their persistency 
in holding slaves has been extensively criticised. And 
not only have they been held up to contempt by a 
large class of the people in the North, but indeed all 
slaveholding States have been abused, slaveholders 
held up as monsters of crime, and all the blame for 
the unfortunate conditions growing out of slavery 
has been cast upon the Southern men. 

The negro race has always had a hard time, and 
has furnished a multitude of slaves for various peo- 
ples. The negro is indigenous to Africa, and the 
race, as such, has never made any history. 

Dr. Spofford, in Johnson's Cyclopedia, says, "The 
only African history worthy of note is a history of 
discovery." While Africa has been the scene of 
wonderful events, wars, architecture, and many of 
the most useful arts, the home of the pyramids, and 
temples, the wonder of the world, the negro has had 
no part in any of these great works of man. He 
has been discussed and "cussed," measured, sized up, 
almost entirely by those who never owned him. 
Theodore Gill, a very learned man, a Northern man, 
whose publications are in the Smithsonian Institution, 
and who was professor of zoology in the Columbian 
University, Washington, D. C, gave a great deal of 
attention to the negro. He says of the negro race. 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 39 

"It is perhaps the most distinct of all the races and 
that in which arc perceptible the most generalized 
characters, or at least those which are most indicative 
of an affinity to and derivation from the apes of the 
human genus. These characters are evidenced both 
superficially and anatomically, as well as morally 
and physically." He investigates the forms, ways, 
and outlines of the negro. He quotes from Dr. San- 
ford B. Hunt, Surgeon of the U. S. Volunteers in the 
late civil war, who after autopsies on the brains of 
four hundred and five whites and negroes made by 
Surgeon Ira Russell, reached the following conclu- 
sion: 

1. The standard weight of the negro brain is over five 
ounces less than that of the white. 

2. Slight intermixture of white blood diminishes the negro 
brain from its normal standard, but when the infusion of 
white blood amounts to one-half (as is seen in the mulatto) 
it determines a positive increase in the negro brain, which in 
the quadroon is only three ounces below the white standard. 

3. The percentage of exceptional!)^ small brains is largest 
among the negroes having but a small percentage of white 
blood. 

4. It is indisputable that the negro in his average character 
deviates less from the ape tribe than any other race, and that 
no high state of civilization has ever originated from among 
the race. 

I quote this, not to give any special indorsement 
to it, but to show how men who have had no personal 
interest in slavery have considered this question. And 
to show, as we will see farther on, that those who 
have become fanatics on the slavery question have 
always treated the negro as a full equal to the white 
man or Caucasian race, and have made many mis- 
takes in the presentation of conditions. The poor 
negro deserves the sympathy of all men. Whether 
his ancestors, as has been contended, rested under the 



40 Old Kentucky 

curse of God or not, the facts seem to prove that the 
race of Ham has ever had some cloud hanging darkly 
over It. 

By way of explanation I want to say that my an- 
cestors, all of whom were from Virginia, owned 
slaves; that I inherited slaves, that I was reared 
among them, and from childhood played with them 
and loved them, and in after years, when they came 
intO' my possession, I was as kind and tender to them 
as if they had been of my own race, and in my whole 
life never bought or sold one ; that I have contributed 
to their education, after they were freed. But I want 
to present the conditions under which we held our 
slaves and the great harm that was done to them 
and to us by fanatics and agitators who knew nothing 
of the real condition of affairs. Slavery has existed, 
in some form or other, in all ages of the world. Af- 
rican slavery and the slave trade developed as early 
as the fifteenth century Into a terrible calamity. And 
a great impulse was given to it after the discovery of 
America. The Invention of hunting negroes In the 
interior of Africa to use them as slaves in the col- 
onies was due to the Portuguese. Then the Spanish 
took It up, and sold many Into slavery. In 15 17 
Charles V gave the Marquise de la Bresa the mon- 
opoly for eight years of exporting negro slaves to 
the American colonies, but soon a very extensive and 
profitable trade sprung up in which the English pro- 
cured their share by the Peace of Utrecht, 17 13, 
when Spain was compelled to allow them to Import 
one hundred and forty-four thousand to her Ameri- 
can colonies. So much did good old other Eng- 
land do for these people, but after a while, when 
the slave-trade was prohibited in America and the 
Americans revolted against it, the English became 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin'' 41 

great abolitionists, and their eyes were wonderfully 
opened to its iniquities — when its profits ceased. 

Slavery was permitted in all the American colonies, 
and when the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted slavery was recognized everywhere in this 
country; and the leading statesmen, from Washing- 
ton down, owned them. And the Constitution they 
made recognized the right to hold slaves, and even 
granted the right in that instrument to owners of 
slaves to seek them wherever they might be found. 
Why God, in his providence, permitted this country 
to make the blunders it did, no human mind can com- 
prehend. Up to the time of the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, after our people had come through the 
struggle, their minds did not begin to conceive really 
what was the meaning of the word "liberty." The 
New England States held slaves, persecuted people 
for their religion, and did not seem to awake to it 
until after the adoption of the Constitution. 

It is not generally known that the strongest op- 
poser of African slavery was a Virginia gentleman, 
who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and 
who doubtless had more part in the writing of the 
Constitution of the United States than any other man. 
When the Constitution was written and adopted the 
people had not yet reached the point of appreciating 
what freedom meant, and it became necessary to 
make amendments to it. The first amendment to 
the Constitution secured perfect freedom of religion. 
Jefferson had seen persecution in Virginia, where the 
clergy of the established church lived riotously on 
the taxation of all dissenters. He had seen some of 
the best men of Virginia arrested, fined, thrust in jail, 
and the cry of these people came up to him, and the 
very first amendment to the Constitution was sug- 
gested by these circumstances, and the amendment 



42 Old Kentucky 

was adopted giving perfect religious freedom to 
every American citizen. Jefferson was the first states- 
man actively to take a stand for the abolition of 
slavery, which measure, though warmly supported 
by the liberal members, failed. The agitation grow- 
ing out of British oppression began to lead the 
American mind to the question of natural rights and 
to the condemnation of slavery. Horace Greely 
says: 

Hence, Thomas Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, yet op- 
posed to slavery, had no difficulty in inducing a majority 
(sixteen to seven) of the Congress which met next after the 
acknowledgment of our independence to vote to exclude 
slavery (in March, 1784) absolutely and forever from all 
the Union not included in any State. The proposition did 
not then prevail, since the votes of a majority (seven) of 
all the States were required to enact it, and the absence of 
a delegate from New Jersey reduced the State's voting yea 
to sixj against three voting nay — North Carolina being di- 
vided. The proposition restricted to an inhibition of slavery 
in the Territories already ceded by the States to the confed- 
eration, was renewed in 1787, when it was unanimously 
passed, and it was reiterated with like unanimity by the first 
Congress which assembled under the Federal Constitution, 
when it received the approval of President Washington. 

Meantime, the convention which formed the Constitution 
had authorized Congress to prohibit the importation of 
slaves after twenty years; and this was done — Congress 
having forbidden, in 1794, our people to engage in carrying 
slaves to other lands, absolutely outlawing all participation 
in the slave-trade by our people, and all importation of 
slaves into this country, by an act passed March 2, 1807 — 
twenty-three days before the British Parliament, after a 
struggle which had lasted nearly a quarter of a century, did 
likewise. 

After the adoption of the first amendment, 
churches were supported by the free-v/ill offering of 
the people who attended them. They made property 
devoted to religious or charitable purposes, and 
schools and colleges, free from taxation. This sepa- 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 43 

ration of the church from the state was one of the 
greatest points of difference between the new world 
and the old. At this time there was no law in the 
world forbidding slavery, and nowhere in the world 
was the free exercise of religion permitted by law. 
And this country had the honor of first teaching 
these great facts to the nations of the world. Vir- 
ginia has the honor of teaching this nation and of 
introducing the first measure advocating the freedom 
of religion ; and Thomas Jefferson was the first great 
statesman that opposed slavery, though he was him- 
self a slav^eholder — and he did this when New Eng- 
land was importing and holding slaves. 

At the close of the Revolutionary war the vast 
extent of territor}^ between the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans ultimately fell into the hands of the govern- 
ment. And what part of this territory, especially of 
the great Northwest and West, belonged to each 
State was difficult to determine. Virginia claimed 
Kentucky and as far west as her lands would reach; 
and other States were in the same condition. The 
Kentuckians had won their lands by their own indi- 
vidual efforts ; no Northern State had won anything. 
No New Yorker lived in the regions bounded by the 
unknown lands by conquest of the Indian. Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut claimed, under ancient char- 
ters, great bodies of lands still held by the British 
and their Indian allies. There was not a New Eng- 
land inhabitant dwelling in this Northwest territory; 
no New England law had any force there; no New 
England soldier had dared tO' go in there until 
Wayne, with his thousand Kentucky cavalry, had his 
great victory over the Indian tribes and Jay's treaty 
was made. The great States of the Northwest were 
not inhabited or owned by any of the other States 
until they acquired their right from the Federal 



44 Old Kentucky 

Union. And though all the States tried to set up 
claims, none of them had courage to win one or to 
keep a territory until Federal troops were back of 
them. These claims were settled by Congress, and 
in 1784 Virginia ceded all of her rights to the terri- 
tory northwest of the Ohio, except some little reser- 
vations, to the government, and Congress quietly 
agreed not to question her right to Kentucky. Con- 
gress now having possession of this great territory, 
had to make provision for the States that might grow 
up therein. Seeing what trouble had been brought 
upon the people of Kentucky and other States that 
had marked out and occupied their irregular claims, 
they determined to provide for the regular survey 
of these lands and to determine upon what terms 
settlers should hold them. By ordinance of 1787 
certain things were determined on, and it was the 
sentiment of the people, and especially of the South- 
ern men, that African slavery should not go into that 
territory. And even in 1784 Jefferson put a clause 
in an ordinance prohibiting slavery in the west terri- 
tory, south as well as north of the Ohio River, after 
the beginning of the year 1801; but it failed to 
pass. In 1785 an effort was made to prohibit slav- 
ery in the Northwest immediately, but it came to 
nothing. Whose fault was it? Only eight States, 
at that time, were represented in Congress; five of 
the eight were Southern ; and the Southern men were 
more strongly in favor of the measure than the cool, 
calculating New Englanders, who were afraid New 
England would lose too much population if the way 
were made clear to move west. A committee ap- 
pointed brought in an ordinance, the majority being 
men of the South, prohibiting slavery, and the re- 
port was vigorously urged by two Virginians on the 
committee, William Grayson and Richard Henry 



''Uncle Tom's Cabin" 45 

Lee. Roosevelt says, "The sixth and most import- 
ant article declared there should never be slavery or 
involuntary servitude in the Northwest, otherwise 
than for punishment of convicted criminals; pro- 
vided however, that fugitive slaves from the older 
States may lawfully be reclaimed by their own- 
ers. * * * j^ ^^g jj-j i-esults, a deadly stroke 
against the traffic in and ownership of human beings, 
and the blow was dealt by Southern men, to whom 
all honor should ev^er be given." 

I intend to take no partisan view of this subject; 
I have no personal interest in it, only that I desire to 
let the facts be known as they really were. From 
boyhood I have known the sentiment in Kentucky 
concerning slavery, and the Kentuckians were not 
strongly attached to it as an institution; but they 
were very warmly attached to the slaves with whom 
they had been, from childhood, accustomed to live; 
and in all my memory of Kentucky I never knew but 
one hard, cruel master — and he was not hard or 
cruel as the New Englander believed; he was a saint 
in comparison with what they thought slaveholders 
were. The slaves in Kentucky, as I knew them, were 
well-fed, comfortably clothed and housed, tenderly 
cared for in sickness, and they seemed to be as much 
attached to their homes as we were, where we all 
shared alike. The farmers taught their boys to work 
in the fields with the colored boys, and in a long ex- 
perience I have seen no happier people than were 
then found in my section of Kentucky. Henry Clay 
was always known to be an emancipationist; Cassius 
M. Clay, a distinguished Kentuckian, was one of 
the most violent abolitionists on earth, and he owned 
slav^es as long as there were any in the State. Why 
not? Was there any law forbidding it? Did not 
the laws of his countiy give him that right? He 



46 Old Kentucky 

would not have been permitted to turn them loose in 
Kentucky; he would not have been permitted to col- 
onize them or turn them loose in any State north of 
the Ohio River. What were they to do? I will il- 
lustrate — 

My grandfather owned a large body of Kentucky 
land; he also owned a few slaves and did not want 
to own them. When I was a boy he called them all 
before him and asked them if they wanted their free- 
dom. As he could not give them freedom and let 
them stay in Kentucky, he sent across the Ohio River 
to ask if he could buy land and put them over there, 
and the privilege was refused. He would not have 
sold one of them any sooner than he would one of 
his own children, and the next thing was to send 
them to Liberia if they would go there. But the re- 
quest of all his slaves was to be permitted to stay 
there — in Kentucky — with him and live with him ; 
and they did until some of them died, and others 
were kindly cared for after his death. What were 
we to do with them? I give it as my opinion that 
Kentuckians, the Kentuckians of my boyhood, before 
their feelings were outraged by slander, vitupera- 
tion, falsehood, and constant meddling with the ne- 
groes, if any provision could have been made for the 
betterment of them so that the State might have been 
free from them, v/ould have carried the measure over- 
whelmingly. But constant agitation awakened bad 
feelings, and the people of Kentucky did not feel like 
being driven to anything by falsehood and abuse. 
This spirit was intensified by constant agitation, until 
many of the Northern people became so fanatical 
on this subject that they were almost insane. The 
Southern people were made to believe that there was 
no spirit of brotherhood in the North toward the 
Southern slaveholders, and that many of them would 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 47 

have been willing to see our houses burned, our fam- 
ilies murdered, almost without sympathy upon the 
part of the North. And when that spirit culminated 
in the John Brown raid, and those fanatics, regard- 
less of law or of the ties that should have bound 
Anglo-Saxons together, made a martyr and a saint 
of that poor old fanatic, — a man who had courage 
to risk all to carry out his convictions, while they sat 
quietly at home and ran no risk, — the climax was 
reached. Men in the North who should have known 
better than to believe things that they heard taught in 
the pulpit, and by the press, kept up these agitations; 
and knowing that the Constitution protected the 
Southern people in their rights and that the Bible 
was not strong enough for them on the subject, they 
openly declared for an anti-slavery God, an anti- 
slavery Constitution, and an anti-slavery Bible. To 
what a pitch of madness can people be driven ! My 
opinion is that slavery was a dark shadow upon this 
country; that in nature it could not exist in a repub- 
lic; and that Providence let this thing be developed 
that it should be abolished; and that it has given 
to the American people a great problem which no 
mind can solve, but which calls for the wisest and 
most consen^ative action. 

Some things that are facts seem almost too un- 
reasonable to believe. In coming from Philadelphia 
to Chicago, in 1876, a very elegant gentleman occu- 
pied a seat with me for a while. He very promptly 
informed me that he had been the pastor of a Pres- 
byterian church in Philadelphia for the past tsventy- 
flve years. He was a Doctor of Divinity, and he 
seemed to be a lovable man and he really was. T did 
not give him my name or place of residence, thinking 
that T might learn more from him by appearing to be 
a plain Western business man in whose identity he 



48 Old Kentucky 

had no interest. I knew that Philadelphia had been 
the original breeding-ground of abolition and I turned 
the conversation to the slavery question ; and though 
the war had been over eleven years, I found he had 
the intensest feeling against Southerners, and I, with- 
out contradicting anything he said, listened to state- 
ments of this sort: 

"What monsters those Southern people must be, 
to have starved the negroes, worked them to death, 
neglected them in sickness, and driven them like 
beasts ! It makes my blood run hot to think of a 
man hitching fifteen or twenty poor human creatures 
to a plow and driving them to the plowing of ground, 
and then turning them loose without feeding, to go 
into the same employment next day !" 

We talked further, and after a while to make him 
feel better, I groaned and said: 

"That looks strange to me; I wonder if it can 
be true? If so, they are not such great sinners as 
fools. To' think that men would pay, I am told, as 
high as twelve hundred dollars for a negro, — well 
make it a thousand dollars, — and they would have, 
if eighteen men were hitched to a plow, a team that 
cost eighteen thousand dollars, when two hundred 
and fifty dollars would buy two mules that would do' 
more plowing in one day than those men would do 
in three ! And not feed them, nor care for them ! 
They could do no work; and if there were not a par- 
ticle of human feeling among men, such folly would 
be unthinkable. Would a man buy a horse and stance 
him to death? Would a man not doctor a sick 
mule simply as a matter of gain, if nothing else? It 
looks unreasonable to me. Besides, have you met 
any Southern gentlemen?" 

He admitted that he had met many, and so far as 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 49 

he could see they were as nice men as he had ever 
met. 

"Well, Doctor S ," I said, "have you known 

any Southern Presbyterian clergymen? Are there 
no scholars and Christians in your denomination 
South? Your church is a wealthy and a fine church 
In the Southern States, and the Presbyterians were 
slaveholders. Can you believe what you have just 
stated; that they would practice such things as you 
have mentioned?" 

He listened thoughtfully, was silent a while, then 
he said: "I am surprised that I ever believed such 
things." 

A great deal has been said about the effect of 
slavery upon the white race. I shall not discuss the 
matter, but will simply say, you may take the finest 
citizens of Kentucky, the Clays, the Crittendens, the 
Marshalls, the Breckinridges, and many families like 
them that owned slaves, as they did — did they show 
to any disadvantage when mingling with distinguished 
gentlemen of the country? Are not their families 
found to-day conspicuous In social, political, and edu- 
cational life? It is astonishing the credulity that 
abolitionists in a large part of the Northern States 
gave to anything said about slavery; they did not 
stop to consider whether the statements were reason- 
able or true; and they let their children, too, grow 
up with these prejudices. The president of my col- 
lege, one of the grandest men In Kentucky, Dr. 
Campbell, of Georgetown, was a Scotchman, and be- 
fore coming to Kentucky he was a rank abolitionist. 
He married a lady In Frankfort, became the owner 
of slaves, and treated them as the rest of us treated 
our slaves. Two of my professors in college were 
Maine men, grand, good men, and slaves worked 

4 



50 Old Kentucky 

for them. And so I might mention multitudes, not 
only in Kentucky, but in other Southern States, whose 
prejudice vanished as soon as they saw conditions as 
they really existed. 

There is no book of its kind, I suppose, that has 
been more read, and over which more tears have 
been shed, than "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; and in care- 
fully reading it, more than once, I have wondered 
how people could swallow all that the author of that 
book set before them. It is a remarkable book; it 
shows great genius, and earnestness of spirit; but 
so much fanaticism has never been put into any other 
one book. I really question whether there is any 
just foundation for a tithe of the things Mrs. Stowe 
has said. Several reasons have been advanced as the 
cause of its wonderful power, — first, a natural dis- 
like for slavery; second, Mrs. Stowe put into it the 
whole Beecher brain, with other assistance she might 
have had; and then the book appeared at a time 
when it was most welcome, during the excitement 
over the Dred Scott decision. It did harm, possibly 
no good. It excited bad feelings, and now, forty 
years after the war is closed and the slaves are free, 
it is paraded through the country in its most horrible 
form, a play, in which are presented dogs of terrible 
appearance, — claimed to be Southern blood-hounds, 
such dogs as were never seen in the South, — to arouse 
the basest feelings in the negro race and prejudice 
the ignorant. Mrs. Stowe selected my county in 
Kentucky as the starting point of her story; and 
she used the name of one of the noblest families 
in the State, Shelby. She states that Mr. Shelby had 
a splendid estate, many negroes, and valuable stock 
of all kinds; she introduces a base, low, ignorant 
negro buyer, who' has power over Mr. Shelby be- 
cause he owes the negro buyer a few hundred dollars. 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 51 

He threatens Mr, Shelby with ruin, and forces him 
to sell a family serv^ant, an honored and valuable 
servant, who is very necessary to the plantation ; and 
to close the trade Mrs, Stowe pictures a beautiful 
little mulatto child — the price of these tvvo paying 
the debt. Mr. Shelby shows great grief in parting 
with these, his wife is almost distracted, all the child- 
ren are in tears — all because that old faithful cook, 
whom they all lov^ed, sees her husband go away for- 
ever — for the want of about sixteen hundred dollars ! 
Now, can anybody believ^e that a man in Mr, Shelby's 
condition could save a large estate by disposing of 
two negroes? And why these two, the most loved 
on the plantation? If Mr, Shelby was the character 
Mrs, Stowe pretends him to be, he would have sold 
every horse on the place and if need be cut off part 
of his farm, rather than make this sacrifice. A good 
farm in Shelby County would have been very cheap 
at fifty dollars an acre; a few acres would have paid 
the debt; a few fine horses would have paid the debt; 
and no Shelby County gentleman would have applied 
to his neighbor for help and not received it. The 
whole thing is false; no such thing ever occurred, 
and anybody who will take a minute to consider will 
see that it is as Imaginary as any story of wildest 
fiction. Of course the scene Is wonderfully drawn. 
In order to rescue her child Eliza Is made to go to 
the Ohio River, which from Shelby County is about 
thirty miles, and to cross the Ohio River when it is 
very high, the last of February, on broken pieces of 
floating ice — an impossibility; and it seems as if 
the author in some measure realized it was an impos- 
sibility, for she states that this scene was drawn from 
a story published in an abolition magazine, and that 
it became the nucleus around which a number of 
scenes began to take form and unity. With a skilled 



52 Old Kentucky 

hand and burning brain Mrs. Stowe has gathered 
out the worst scenes that could have been thought of 
to awaken feeling and prejudice. Had she employed 
her powers in depicting the horrible scenes among 
the poor of England and her colonies; of the op- 
pression of the Irish people in their poverty; of the 
unfeeling spirit of the aristocracy, who nearly owned 
England, in oppressing those who labored for them ; 
or selected individual circumstances of suffering ones, 
of the starving condition of women and children la- 
boring in factories, she could have shown the suffer- 
ing of the Anglo-Saxon race, and it would have been 
true though almost beyond belief. What pictures 
could be drawn of the suffering in London, or in 
Paris ! Or any other place all over Europe. 

Suppose Mrs. Stowe had gone to Boston, wit- 
nessed the toil and poverty of women and children in 
the factories ; or had described the sorrow and suffer- 
ing aboard a vessel loaded with unfortunate slaves 
torn from Africa and brought here by New Eng- 
land people as articles of traffic. Perhaps no more 
heartrending scenes of suffering were ever witnessed 
than were witnessed on these slave-ships. But Mrs. 
Stowe's sympathy did not run in that direction. Sup- 
pose that she had told of the cargoes of rum that 
New England sent to Africa, and that wherever a 
missionary went, rum followed. Could she not have 
told what New Englanders did with their slaves 
when they found them unprofitable, and who paid the 
money for them that was used in building up their 
manufactories? Suppose she had gone into the slums 
of New York and seen thousands of children and 
older people living in a single block huddled together 
like rats; many little sick ones scarcely ever seeing 
the sunlight. Suppose she had gone to the Tombs 
police court and had seen little children and besotted 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 53 

mothers of the most revolting character, all huddled 
together, to be tried and sent to the various places of 
punishment. I have been in that court and have 
seen things there that made the heart sick. For in- 
stance, when those poor mothers, brought there for 
crime with their little children, have had in little 
buckets the refuse out of slop pails on the street — 
their only means of satisfying their hunger. The 
pen has not been made that can give a true picture 
of the sufferings of the poor and the oppressed in 
other lands, even in this, our goodly land. What is 
the difference between working slaves to death and 
starving women and children to death in factories 
and in poverty from which there is no escape? What 
does this all prove? That in this world there will 
be the poor and the oppressed, that there will be 
hunger and slavery in some form until the millenium. 
And it would be unjust to hold all human govern- 
ments up to scorn, or to create hate toward them, 
and against wealth, and the oppression of the poor. 
This course would result only in anarchy, in social- 
ism, and in plunder. He who tries to array section 
against section, class against class; he who appeals 
to the passions of men, is an enemy to the govern- 
ment, an enemy to the betterment of conditions, and 
an enemy to the people. 

There is one thing that strikes the reader of 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" with some force. Mrs. 
Stowe has brought out many beautiful traits of char- 
acter, and so far as I can see, she has drawn them 
from people who were raised in the South. Some of 
her negro characters are beautiful, and we who know 
the negro know that some of the noblest, most af- 
fectionate, and confiding people we have ever known 
have been of the negro race. The old uncles and the 
aunties were true and lovable in character, and even 



54 Old Kentucky 

Dixon in his "Clansman," which is so much abused, 
brings out true to life some of the best negro charac- 
ters, and they shine like stars above the poor white 
trash which rose to the surface in the general agi- 
tation ; and he shows truly the baseness of the low- 
est negro characteristics. The principal characters 
among the whites in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," who are 
presented as dealing in slaves, she has truly stated, 
were men of Northern birth. Very few native South- 
erners ever dealt in slaves. It was those adventurers 
who came in from the North, who had no sympathy 
with the negroes, who dealt in them as if they were 
cattle. 

Augustine St. Clair was the son of a wealthy 
planter in Louisiana. The family had its origin in 
Canada. Of two brothers, very similar in tempera- 
ment and character, one had settled in Vermont, the 
other became an opulent planter in Louisiana. 
Augustine and his brother Alfred were twins, the 
only children of the family, "Their father had an 
overseer, a great tall, slab-sided, two-fisted renegade 
son of Vemiont, who had gone through a regular ap- 
prenticeship in hardness and brutality and taken his 
degree to be admitted to practice." He was an un- 
feeling, cold-hearted man, and Augustine said of him, 
"He could have divided Poland as easily as an 
orange or trodden on Ireland as quietly and system- 
atically as any man living." Alfred was such a man 
as his father, and ruled unfeelingly over five or six 
hundred slaves, and got to believe that they were 
scarcely human. Augustine was an easy-going man 
of forceless character, who, while believing in his 
heart in the wrongs of slavery, enjoyed every luxury 
he could obtain through slave labor. As Mrs. Stowe 
has confessed that this was Vermont stock and that 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 55 

these men could be so easily controlled through their 
love of gain, we must believe her. 

The meanest, lowest, basest character in the book 
is Legree. If there ever was such a character in the 
South, I never knew of it, though for years I owned 
a plantation in Mississippi, and traveled all through 
the South. I have been on the great sugar planta- 
tions and on the cotton plantations, and with very 
few exceptions the slaves were treated so as to enable 
them to have health and strength to work, to say the 
least of it. I never knew, while I lived there, of a 
master killing a slave. 

This is the description Mrs. Stowe gives of her 
meanest character — a Vermonter also, and observa- 
tion of Southern people has proved that these people 
who were meanest to the negroes were from the 
North : 

His round, bullet head, large, light-gray eyes, with their 
shaggy, sandy eye-brows, and stiff, wiry, sun-burned hair, 
were rather unprepossessing items it is to be confessed ; his 
large, coarse mouth was distended with tobacco, the juice 
of which, from time to time, he ejected from him with 
great decision and explosive force ; his hands were immensely 
large, hairy, sun-burned, freckled, and very dirty, and gar- 
nished w^ith long nails, in a very foul condition. * * * 
And what was the matter with Legree? And what was 
there in a simple curl of fair hair to appall that brutal man, 
familiar with every form of cruelty? To answer this, w^e 
must carry the reader backward in his history. Hard and 
reprobate us the godless man seemed now, there had been 
a time when he had been rocked on the bosom of a mother, — 
cradled with prayers and pious hymns — his now seared brow 
bedewed with the waters of holy baptism. In early child- 
hood, a fair-haired woman had led him, at the sound of 
Sabbath bell, to worship and to pray. Far in New England 
that mother had trained her only son, with long, unwearied 
love, and patient prayers. Born of a hard-tempered sire, 
on whom that gentle woman had wasted a world of un- 
valued love, Legree had followed in the steps of his father. 
Boisterous, unruly, and tyrannical, he despised all her coun- 



S6 Old Kentucky 

sel, and would have none of her reproof; and, at an early 
age, broke from her, to seek his fortunes at sea. He never 
came home but once after, and then his mother, with the 
yearning of a heart that must love something, and has 
nothing else to love, clung to him, and sought, with pas- 
sionate prayers and entreaties, to win him from a life of 
sin, to his soul's eternal good. 

That was Legree's day of grace ; then good angels called 
him ; then he was almost persuaded, and mercy held him by 
the hand. His heart nearly relented, — there was a con- 
flict, — but sin got the victory, and he set all the force of 
his rough nature against the conviction of his conscience. 
He drank and swore, — was wilder and more brutal than 
ever. And, one night, when his mother, in the last agony 
of her despair, knelt at his feet, he spurned her from him, — 
threw her senseless on the floor, and, with brutal curses, fled 
to his ship. The next Legree heard of his mother was when, 
one night, as he was carousing among drunken companions, 
a letter was put into his hand. He opened it, and a lock 
of long, curling hair fell from it, and twisted about his 
fingers. The letter told him his mother was dead, and 
that, dying, she blest and forgave him. 

It will be remembered that Legree was a Ver- 
monter, and in any place where he could have op- 
pressed a human being for his own personal gain, this 
man would have been a monster. But his conduct, as 
shown in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," acts very well for 
effect and helps to bring out the tragedy. 

I have given this much attention to "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" because of its wonderful influence and effect, 
and much more could be said concerning It. History 
will some day do justice to this question. It will tell 
how New England Introduced and sold slaves ; how 
noble Southern men were opposed to Its extension; 
how, after they had paid for the slaves. New Eng- 
land began to abuse them ; how the fairest parts of 
the country have had to struggle under this cloud, 
that not only separated negro families, but white 
families; how hate was Intensified until men of all 



"Uncle Tom's Cabin" 57 

the States shed their blood; how brother fought 
against brother; how property was destroyed; how 
the agitators shunned the conflict; and how, after it 
was all settled on the battlefields, the basest elements 
were thrust into power, and homes destroyed, and 
general suffering followed both for the whites and 
for the blacks. Maybe in a hundred years history 
may tell how this great problem, which no human 
mind can comprehend, has been settled by the mighty 
hand of a merciful God. 



CHAPTER III 

THE NEGRO IN KENTUCKY 

All In all, the negroes of Kentucky v c ihe best 
class of negroes I have ever met. Th - been 

trained by good Virginia people to honee ,: ' 
ness; trained tO' respect religion, and t, . 
masters and their masters' children. They arc 
tionate people, and when you trust them you may 
rely upon their faithfulness. In these days they were 
kindly treated; they were made to feel that our 
homes were their homes, and in speaking about the 
home and property of the master, they always called 
it "We-all's"; and manifested absolutely as much 
pride in the success of our farms, in the quality of 
our stock, as we did ourselves. They were always 
kind to our children; and this very thing made us 
love the negro. We were willing to divide anything 
with them and they would make any reasonable sacri- 
fice for us. Among my own people, and among my 
neighbors, when I was a boy, with one exception, I 
scarcely ever heard a harsh word spoken tO' a negro 
or saw one abused. 

Perhaps I can best illustrate this by a visit to an 
old Kentucky home. I will go with you to my old 
grandfather's and give it just as it now rises before 
me as a picture. I may mix it up and throw some 
things in disconnectedly; but I have an illustrious 
example in Charles Dickens, whose stories may never 
be generalized, for he seemed to put in just whatever 
came to his mind, whether it had connection with the 
other things or not. Dickens always reminds me of 
fishing for ocean trout; you never can tell just which 



The Negro in Kentucky 59 

way the trout is going. Sometimes it will make a 
straight shoot, then tack to the right, or to the left, 
then bound back, and it takes skillful playing to land 
It safely. 

Grandfather Flood was a typical Virginia English- 
Irishman, whose father owned a large estate in Vir- 
ginia, and died before the Revolutionary war. Ac- 
cording to the law of that day the oldest son in- 
herited the great bulk of the estate. Grandfather 
had three brothers that I know came tO' Kentucky, 
and I think they were accompanied by their two sis- 
ters. Of course they were poor, and left Virginia to 
better their condition in Kentucky. Three of them 
settled in Shelby County, and commenced, in the 
dense forests, to clear out their little farms. They 
were industrious and fruitful. They all built log- 
cabins first, and later good, substantial homes which 
were afterward improved and weather-boarded. 
Grandmother Flood and her people also came from 
Virginia. They were Huguenots, as their name, 
Bondurant, will show. How I have been thrilled to 
hear from her lips the history of their early 
struggles ! She often told me that the happiest days 
she ever saw, and her whole life was really a happy 
life, were the first years of their settlement in the 
woods. They had a little cabin of one room; it 
had a dirt floor, and was built of round logs, through 
the cracks of which, she said, she often looked out 
into the night and saw beautiful stars. Her first bed- 
stead was composed of forks driven in the ground, 
and poles laid across to the cracks in the logs, on 
which were stretched boards, and over these boards 
was made the bed. She was then but a girl, fifteen 
years old, of splendid form, vigorous health, and she 
really had the sweetest disposition of any woman I 
ever knew. During the day grandfather would cut 



6o Old Kentucky 

the brush, and they would burn It at night, like two 
children playing around a bonfire. I think grand- 
mother inherited two negroes, who had their own 
cabin and were as happy as their owners. They 
raised their little crops, pushed on, commenced rais- 
ing children, and finally were able to build a comfort- 
able home of hewn logs and shingled roof, and then 
weather-boarded it out of planks cut with a whip-saw, 
two men sawing it, one standing above the other on 
a platform. And when I can first remember them, 
though I was a very small child, they were living in 
great comfort and happiness; and lived to see their 
children take desirable positions in life; some rise to 
eminence, and not a stain on the character of any of 
them. They both lived to a ripe old age, grand- 
mother being over eighty when she died. 

I take this family to illustrate what I want to say, 
because I think it was a typical Kentucky family of 
the old time. They were devout Christians, and their 
children all became Christians, one of them becoming 
an eminent Baptist preacher. He had a peculiar 
name, Noah, and he is perhaps as well known in 
Missouri, whither he went, as any one, and is as 
much honored as any man in the State. In every way 
the blessings that usually follow a family raised in 
honesty, in Christian teaching and industry, followed 
their descendants. Grandfather never ceased to be a 
Virginian in all his ways. He farmed like a Vir- 
ginian, he lived like one, and he had the prejudices 
and characteristics of a Virginian. Until a very few 
years before his death he would never use anything 
but a wooden mould-board plow. On the handle of 
each one hung a paddle to scrape off the dirt. He 
preferred to use oxen for all draft purposes, and 
thought it was a sin against nature to raise mules, 
and he would never have one on his place. If he 



The Negro in Kentucky 6i 

ever had a mowing scythe on his place, to the time 
of his death, I never knew it, I have seen grand- 
mother ride to church many a time in an ox-cart, 
when she might have had a carriage if she preferred; 
but she said she thought the cart was safer; and 
Daniel, walking along driving the oxen, made the 
security almost certain. No corn was cut on that 
place; the fodder was pulled off the stalk up to the 
ears, stuck in bet^veen the stalks to dry, and then in 
the evenings, after the dew fell, so it would not 
crumble, all hands went out and tied it in bunches 
and dragged it to sorting places, where a tall pole 
was set up, around which the fodder was stacked — 
and it surely was sweet food for stock. Next the tops 
were cut off and carried out to make shuck-houses, 
and the shuck-house, forty feet long, was really a de- 
lightful thing. It was made of strong forks, twelve 
feet high or more, put in the ground, along which 
ran a ridge-pole, and leaning up against this were 
poles, upon which cross ones were fastened, and the 
fodder tops put all around it heavily like a shingled 
roof. Now the corn was gathered, hauled In, put 
into a great hallway between two immense cribs, and 
things got ready for the "corn-shucking," which was 
a great time with the negroes. It meant fun, feast- 
ing, wrestling, boxing, singing, and a general good 
time, a revel which scarcely ever closed before mid- 
night. The neighboring negroes came in, and there 
would be perhaps thirty or more at a corn-shucking. 
They divided off into two parties, the corn was 
divided into two parcels, leaders were chosen, and 
work began. The side which won out got to eat at 
the first table, and the other side had to wait on them, 
and sing while the victors ate. I have never seen a 
more interesting sight in any theatre, or even at the 
World's Fair, than was to be seen at the old-fash- 



62 Old Kentucky 

ioned negro corn-shucking. Some call them corn- 
hiiskings; but a Kentucklan will never call a hominy- 
mortar a hominy-block, or a corn-shucking a corn- 
husking. The shucks were borne away and put into 
the shuck-house, during which there was many a 
wrestle and a scuffle as a test of the manhood of each 
one. Oh, it was fine fun for us boys ! Good, rich 
cider flowed free as water. The neighbors came in 
to see the fun, and there was great feasting for the 
white folks ; and the negroes had what we had. The 
great table was stretched out, and on it was the best 
old ham, generally roast pig, turkeys, chickens, all 
kinds of vegetables in season, butter of the best kind, 
good white bread, salt-rising wheat bread, salt-rising 
corn bread — all in the greatest abundance. And 
when all were satisfied, and songs had been sung as 
only negroes can sing, they dispersed to their various 
homes, and you could hear them singing their songs 
as they went homeward over the hills, as happy as 
mortals could be. 

Though he was very kind, grandfather was a stern 
man. The leader of the negroes in that community 
was Uncle Joe Flood's Bill, a tall, wiry, active man. 
They all looked up to Uncle Bill, and always sought 
favors through his intervention. I remember once 
there was a fine crowd at the corn-shucking; and 
they had shucked perhaps nearly an hour in compara- 
tive silence, for they were afraid to be noisy, even 
afraid to sing, without the consent of grandfather. I 
was standing by the side of the dear old man, who 
was holding my hand when Uncle Bill approached 
him, took oft his hat, and made as elegant a bow as 
a Chesterfield, saying, "Mars' Joshy, de boys want 
me to ax you If you's any dejections to um singin'?" 

"No, Billy, enjoy yourselves," replied grandfather. 

Uncle Bill started at a trot to his place in the 



The Negro hi Kentucky 63 

shucking, ci7ing out, "Boys, let no man occupy me. 
Mars' Joshy says, 'Sing,' " and he started up with 
"Ho-o-e-Ho!" and the music of the night began. 

The people of those days loved each other as 
neighbors, and they were generous and kind. If one 
killed a beef his neighbor had a share of it, and the 
same provision was made, in the land of abundance, 
for the negroes, who Wed their homes, their masters, 
and their children. I don't remember ever seeing a 
negro, except the boys and young ones, who needed a 
little correction, whipped by his master, in Shelby 
County. The crudest punishment I ever saw in- 
flicted on a negro was given by my grandmother, and 
in all my memory I believe to-day she was the best 
woman I ever saw. It came about in this way. 

It was the greatest section for fruit that I ever saw 
in the countiy. It seemed you had only to stick down 
a twig or plant a peach stone and you soon had fine 
trees. Grandfather had a splendid orchard, but 
grandmother always claimed a right to certain trees, 
one of which was a very large "sweetening" apple 
tree which made the finest apple-butter in the count}s 
having just the right flavor. Of course that apple 
tree was set apart for that purpose, and we had to 
let it alone. There was one especial pear tree, too, 
that grandmother reserved the fruit of for making 
preserves, and no one was allowed to touch the pears 
of that tree. But, of course, that was the vei7 tree 
that I wanted fruit from, and being a spoilt, sickly, 
petted child, and named for grandfather, I could 
have taken the privilege to go to it, but out of respect 
to authority I kept away from the tree until I got to 
feel that I must have a pear off of It. My body- 
guard and especial servant was named Peter. Peter 
was black, mischievous, fat, slick; and if ever two 
boys were fond of each other, we two boys were. 



64 Old Kentucky 

Peter, knowing my great desire for a pear from that 
tree, climbed over the fence, — a high stake-and-rider 
fence, — and got me a pear. Grandmother saw him, 
and called us both to her. Her great benevolent face 
looked serious, and she seemed surprised that her 
authority should be ignored; but I now know that 
she was in fun, but wanted to teach us a lesson. Had 
I let him, Peter would have lied to protect me; but 
I told grandmother the truth and she said she was 
very sorry, and as I was sick, with Peter's consent, 
she would punish him for us both, a plan to which 
he readily consented, and begged for her to do so. 
She told Peter to go and bring her a bridle, and I can 
see him now, standing with the bridle before grand- 
mother, clothed in one garment, a very long linen 
shirt, which came down below his knees. I was 
dressed exactly as he was, for Peter and I shared 
alike. Grandmother looked at us, and finally said to 
Peter, "When horses break through fences, and we 
can't keep them in their place, we have to tie them 
up; and I am sorry, Peter, but I will have to treat 
you like a horse." She fixed the bridle up on Peter, 
putting the bit in his mouth, and hitched him up to a 
nail on the porch. Peter looked mightily discour- 
aged, but enjoyed it better than any of us. I was dis- 
tressed, and watched him. Grandmother sat down 
to her knitting and we were all silent. Peter stood 
there, slobbering, and, as a horse would do, pretend- 
ing to chew at the bit, and when he could catch my 
eye he would wink; but when he thought grand- 
mother was watching him he looked veiy mournful. 
After a while it got to be too serious for me, for I 
wanted Peter tO' go with me to the creek to plunge in 
and catch crawfish, and I went to grandmother and 
said, "Grandmother, won't you please let my horse 
loose? It was my fault. Peter will never break 



The Negro in Kentucky 65 

through a fence any more." Grandmother drew me 
to her and kissed me, and said, "You poor little boy, 
this will teach you never to break any laws, and I 
hope Peter will learn the same lesson," and she 
turned Peter loose. He immediately ran out to the 
fine grass at the back of the house, and wallowed like 
a horse, and went through all the motions of a horse 
just let loose, and got up and shook himself, and soon 
we were in the creek. But I think neither one of us 
ever lost the lesson that was taught him. 

Grandfather had his notions about religion, poli- 
tics, and domestic life, and it was almost impossible 
to change them. He was a great admirer of John 
the Baptist, of Paul, and of all the old Baptist 
preachers in the country. Thomas Jefferson and An- 
drew Jackson were his political god-fathers, and 
heaven and earth might have passed away, and, if he 
were still living, he would cling to their principles. 
He didn't believe in innovations; and I don't believe 
during his whole life he ever allowed a cook-stove to 
come into his kitchen. But he was not alone, there 
were others as bad. It took a year's hard work to 
get a cook-stove into my father's kitchen, and to the 
day of his death he contended that food did not taste 
the same as when cooked around a great fire-place, 
and I am of the same opinion to-day. 

They used to thrash out their wheat with flails or 
trample it out with horses, and they took it out when 
the wind was blowing and cleaned it with the pure 
wind of heaven, contending that Providence had 
supplied a means of cleaning wheat without any 
human intervention. It took a long time before 
grandfather would lay down the sickle for the scythe 
and cradle, or use "artificial wind," as he called it, 
for the wheat fan. 



66 Old Kentucky 

A time of great enjoyment was the hog-kllling; 
and they did kill hogs In those days, and such hog 
meat! Such bacon and such hams as they made 
would put modern methods of curing meat to the 
blush. One old Kentucky ham cured by old Vir- 
ginia methods, a method which preserved its sweet- 
ness for two years, would be worth more to me to- 
day than a wheel-barrow load of the stuff made by 
Armour or Swift. The morning on which the hog- 
killing was to be done was a busy one, and every one 
was interested and alert. Ordinary families would 
kill ten to fifteen hogs, and larger families would kill 
more. Grandfather killed about thirty, but not all 
at once, usually in two killings. The log-heap was 
made the day before, and large stones placed upon it 
to be heated. A big cask was set sloping in the 
ground and leaned against a platform, so that a hog 
could be dipped into the cask, scalded, and drawn 
out. By daylight of the great day everything was 
astir. Usually some of the neighbors would send in 
a hand or two if needed; if not, some of them would 
come over to witness It, The rule was that one 
dressed hog, at least, was to be stretched up on the 
pole by sunrise. The hogs to be killed were usually 
put into a pen convenient, and some one, with a very 
small Kentucky rifle, would shoot them as needed. 
They had to be shot In precisely one spot between the 
eyes, and should the one beginning the shooting 
make a mistake and make a hog squeal, he had to 
put the gun down and another would take It. One 
day my father and Ned Flood were to do the shoot- 
ing, and all went well until the last hog was to be 
shot. They, with their native Kentucky "devilment," 
as grandfather called it when anything went wrong, 
agreed to make that last hog squeal. All day they 
had been shooting hog about, and neither had missed; 



The NciTfo ni Kcnlncky 67 

but by agreement they were to make him squeal just 
to see what grandfather would do. One raised up 
and shot the hog through the nose, and there was a 
great squealing; the other raised up and shot him 
in the mouth, and then there was confusion, negroes 
and all laughing, thinking that the men were drunk. 
Of course they had whiskey at all these affairs, but 
I don't remember ever to have seen a drunken negro 
or white man at a hog-killing or a corn-shucking. 
Grandfather could endure the confusion no longer — 
the squealing. He was then about seventy-six years 
old, but rushed into the house, got his old smooth- 
bore rille, ran out, and the first sight he got of the 
hog he shot and broke Its back; the hog fell. And 
to use his favorite expression — "There is no devil 
if I cannot fetch him down." 

The hogs, when cleaned anci ready to be cut up, 
were hung upon a pole and left to get cool. They 
usually took down two or three, took out the spare- 
ribs, the tenderloins, and such other parts as they 
liked, and the cooking was commenced. And such 
cooking, and seasoning; spare-ribs, salted and pep- 
pered and a little sage put on them, put in great old 
fashioned ovens, and baked; tenderloins, seasoned 
and floured and fried to a nice brown. Dinner was 
prepared largely the day before, with some kind of 
roast poultry, for poultry was as abundant and cheap 
as hog-meat, and with hot rolls and Kentucky biscuits 
and fine butter, all kinds of presei-ves, great chunks 
of beautiful honey; cider, and for those who wanted 
it, a little toddy, they had a grand dinner, told an- 
ecdotes, and enjoyed themselves until time to cut up 
the hogs and trim them nicely; then the day's work 
was accomplished, and their hearts had been happy 
all day, and perhaps the very happiest of them all 



68 Old Kentucky 

were the negroes, for they had had their full share 
in everything. 

These are not "Uncle Tom's Cabin" stories, 
simply visionary, but are literal truths; and a speci- 
men of what one found in Kentucky in those old days. 
And there are old people living in Kentucky to-day 
who would verify these statements by affidavit. 

In justice to the negro I ought to speak about some 
of his peculiar characteristics. One of these was his 
strong attachment to home and to his people, and 
his respect for religion. He was taught this by his 
old "marster" and old mistress, the Bible was read 
to him and where there were only a few negroes they 
were usually invited in to family worship, which was 
a common custom. They went to the same church- 
house, every Sunday, as freely as their masters, ex- 
cept those who had to attend to domestic work about 
the house, and it was usually arranged that this 
work could be alternateci. They heard the same 
preaching, they took part in the singing, they were 
baptized by the same white preacher, and took com- 
munion at the same time with the white people. I 
never knew but one man, and the memory of him is 
a nightmare to me, who ever forbade his negroes 
going to church. When a negro died he was care- 
fully buried in the family graveyard. I have known 
but few negroes who were infidels. 

My grandfather had a brother who owned a num- 
ber of negroes, and was considered one of the best 
managers and best feeders in the county. He knew 
and understood negro character well, and it was his 
special order that there should always be enough left 
after each meal to feed five hungiy men should they 
happen tO' come in. And so fearful was he about 
not being able at all times to meet every demand, 
that at the beginning of 1812 he began to put away 



The Negro in Kentucky 69 

"a nest egg," which he never allowed to be disturbed, 
though he loaned money. And after his death my 
brother-in-law, who was his youngest son, told me 
that there was found in an old chest in his house, un- 
reasonable as it may seem, a barrelful of silver. 
Much of it had lain there from as far back as 18 12. 
He had two negroes, as I stated, who were supposed 
to be from Africa. I don't know where he got them. 
They believed in conjuring, and ghosts, and every- 
thing that was unreal, as a great many other negroes 
did; but these two especially believed in the super- 
natural. The pious negroes, especially, worked hard 
for their conversion, but they contended, when told 
about Christ, that God Almighty never would walk 
around on the ground here like a man. They were 
the Advanced Higher Critics in Kentucky, and latter- 
day ones have not gotten much beyond them. But 
tell them something sufficiently unreasonable and 
they would catch it at once. They believed that 
"witches" could do anything, and the white boys, 
who were full of mischief, used to tell them wonder- 
ful stories to see with what greediness they received 
them. One I remember well. There was a little, 
old, dried-up man, who lived away down the hills, 
and if any one could look like a "witch" it was "Old 
Burns." The negroes used the word "witch" indis- 
criminately, not knowing the distinction between 
"witch" and "wizard." 

The white boys told them various things to get 
their interest, and finally told them this story. 

"Burns lives, you know, boys, away down on Six 
Mile, in a cabin ten by twelve. And he had a baby; 
and one day Burns was sittin' rocking his baby — 
and a great big panther came and looked in at the 
door. And it made Burns so mad that he reached 
under his bed and pulled out his club, forty feet long, 



70 Old Kentucky 

with a great Iron knob on it. Burns looked at the 
panther and kept getting madder and madder. 
Finally he started, and the panther started; and the 
first swipe Burns got at him, the panther jumped out 
of the way and Burns knocked down a beech-tree 
that was full of beech-nuts. That scared the pan- 
ther, and then they had it. Up and down they ran, 
and finally he got another swipe at the panther, but 
he jumped across the Backbone hills, and when the 
panther was about one hundred yards ahead Burns 
made a swipe and hit him on the foot, and knocked 
down a white oak." 

About this time old Coot, as he was called, was 
full of excitement, and cried, "Lawd, my Lawd! 
Then what did he do?" 

"Well, the panther made a dash for the Kentucky 
River, Burns after him, and getting madder all the 
time. And when the panther came to a high bluff, 
Burns was right behind him ; and when the panther 
jumped he landed on the other side of the river — 
jumped clear across it; and Burns made a strike at 
him and his staff divided the Kentucky River and 
killed a cat-fish lying on the bottom of it." 

Old Bill could not stand it any longer. 

"My Lawd, ain't that Burns a man!" 

And yet that negro never was made to believe that 
Jesus Christ was here in person, on the earth. 

The negroes were superstitious, the white folks 
were superstitious, and there is just enough supersti- 
tion now among us Kentuckians to make it pleasant. 
What Kentuckian would not rather see the moon 
clear over his left shoulder, would not rather plant 
his potatoes in the dark of the moon, would rather 
lay his rail fence in the light of the moon? What 
Kentuckian enjoys a dog howling at the window at 
night, as much as he would a fife and drum? And 



The Negro in Kentucky 71 

what Kentucky preacher in the old time would not 
have preferred to preach to a lot of those good old 
negroes, that had souls and sang and knew how to 
pray, had a child-like earnest faith, to the congre- 
gation dressed in frizzles and frazzles, swallow-tailed 
coats, and tailored pantaloons, or a great audience, 
and with a prelude and postlude, and with individual 
communion cups, as can be found in congregations 
to-day? In what congregation would his sermon 
have produced the best results ? 

Sometimes men had to sell a negro; but except 
those who had to be taken out of the community for 
crimes committed, and sent down South, negroes 
were not sold except to neighbors, or to the family, 
and kind provisions were made for them in disposing 
of them. These statements are the result of my 
honest observations. 

It has been said, and believed, that the influence of 
the negro had a bad effect upon the white children. 
I do not believe it, and I believe that the most emi- 
nent native Kentuckians, who have become governors, 
United States Senators, congressmen from various 
States, the most profound ministers in the pulpit, 
teachers and professors in colleges, and such men, 
would agree with me. It is true that when we would 
be spending evenings in the cabins with them 
hearing them tell stories and sing songs, we would 
be impressed about as children are now when hear- 
ing of Santa Claus. And I would rather my child- 
ren would hear those things than to be filled with 
the idea of Santa Claus, which has led people. In 
after life, to believe that the story of Christ was a 
Santa Claus story. After a long experience and care- 
ful thought on this matter, I am satisfied that the in- 
fluences of the old-time Kentucky negroes upon the 
white children were good. A very great majority of 



72 Old Kentucky 

them believed as firmly in Christ and religion as 
teachers in theological seminaries, and accepted the 
doctrines without reserve, and they impressed this 
idea upon us all. And though I was raised with 
negroes and was intimate with them, I never failed 
to be impressed by the earnest, child-like faith of 
these faithful old Christians. 

The negroes were taught obedience, and we 
learned that virtue with them. The negroes were 
taught to be honest and were punished for dishon- 
esty just as we children were. And I cannot remem- 
ber one single bad lesson that I learned from our 
good old colored people. They were an imaginative, 
visionary people, and perhaps no people ever believed 
more In dreams or were more influenced by them. 
Some one will say, "You might expect such results 
from such people." Let me tell you, the one dream 
of all that I have ever heard that made the most 
Impression upon me was a dream told by a white 
man. Governor James F. Robinson, of Georgetown, 
Kentucky, one of the most eminent lawyers of the 
State, one of the noblest men of his age, had a grand- 
son who accidentally shot himself. I was Invited, 
with another young man, to sit the night when his 
body was lying in the parlor before burial, and away 
about the midnight hour, the "Grand Old Roman," 
as they called him, came quietly In and took his seat. 
The conversation drifted to the subject of impres- 
sions, influence of mind upon mind at the bar and in 
the pulpit; and he said: 

"One thing in my life produced a most profound 
impression upon me with regard to the spirit world. 
It was a dream that I had. In my dream I passed 
into the spirit world, and It seemed that I was the 
only spirit In that great Unknown. I knew not vv^here 
to go or what to expect, but finally it seemed that 



The Negro in Kentucky 73 

I was in Fayette County, and everything was unreal. 
But in my great loneliness I saw a man approaching 
me. 'Now,' I thcught, 'I will learn where I am.' 
As soon as he was within speaking distance I hailed 
him, and reached out my hand to grasp him, and in- 
stantly he disappeared, and I was alone again. I 
went on until I saw, in a grove up near Lexington, 
what seemed to be a good-sized picnic party, among 
whom were friends that I recognized, and I directed 
my steps toward them, and just as I was about to 
enter in among them they all vanished and I was 
alone. The distress of my mind cannot be expressed. 
But I started on, and after while approached a resi- 
dence which I thought belonged to Colonel Quarles. 
Now, I felt, I would surely find relief. I approached 
the door, and when I put my foot on the first step 
it all vanished, and there I was alone. And I cried in 
anguish, 'Oh, God, is this eternity, and am I for- 
saken? Is there nothing real on earth?' and my 
feelings were so intense that I awoke. And no ser- 
mon, nothing, has ever taught me the lesson that 
this dream did, that earthly things are vanity; and 
that man ought, here, to prepare for companionship 
in the world to come." 

This was no dream of a negro, but of a great and 
noble man who' conceived it to be almost a revelation 
from Heaven to him. Old Kentucky may have had 
people who believed in dreams, signs, ghosts, and 
witches, but she never rose to that high plane of civ- 
ilization which the people residing in Salem reached 
when they burned witches. I have been at some 
pains to show the real condition of affairs in the old 
times, and to show that, though the whites and blacks 
mingled together in Kentucky, neither race had a very 
demoralizing effect upon the other, with, of course, 
a few exceptions. 



74 Old Kentucky 

Kentucky had slaves, and so far as I can see she 
did the best she could for them. They were a help 
to their masters; and the influence of the whites upon 
them had much to do in leading them to Christianity 
and enlightenment. And perhaps there is no like 
number of colored people in the world to-day who, 
on the whole, are as happy as were the Kentucky 
negroes. 



CHAPTER IV 

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT KENTUCKY 

The Kentuckians have been accused of having very 
high prejudices; of being vindictive, proud, clannish, 
drunken, and various other things which are equally 
absurd. Before answering in a brief way some of 
these things, let me ask a question — would people of 
this sort be likely to build up a country, to produce 
citizens that would take high rank in the state, and 
succeed in every position in life? To ask the ques- 
tion is to answer it. 

PREJUDICE 

The word prejudice is a word of harsh meaning. 
The man who is influenced by prejudice is not reli- 
able; he forms his judgments without evidence or 
investigation. It has been said that the Kentuckians 
were never fair in their feelings toward the Indians. 
Can any one living estimate the provocations they had 
to despise the Indians and to fight them? It is not 
necessary to recount the horrible treatment that the 
early Kentuckians, their wives and children, received 
at the hands of the most brutal, unfeeling human be- 
ings that the civilized world has ever come in contact 
with. The Kentuckians at first simply went in to 
make homes in a new part of the country that no 
tribe ever claimed or owned. It was ground over 
which the several tribes had fought each other 
for the possession of; but none had ever reached the 
point of victory where any part of the land was con- 
ceded to the other tribes. The early settlers tried by 



76 Old Kentucky 

treaty and every way to conciliate these Indians, but 
in vain. 

Let me go back sixty-four years and tell what I 
heard around the fireside ; for I remember it as well 
as if told me last year. All my grandparents were 
living at that time, nor did they all die until I was 
nearly twenty years old. The stories that were told 
around the fireside, how fresh in my memory they are ! 
Nearly all my people on my paternal grandfather's 
side were killed by the Indians, and many of them 
were killed under the most cruel circumstances. I 
heard again and again the account of the attack on 
Bi-yan's Station, told by my people who were there, 
and I had intended to give the story as they related 
it to me, but in the "Winning of the West" there is 
a fair and Impartial statement of It, except that there 
are a great many interesting little Incidents told which 
are not really necessary to the description. Mr. 
Roosevelt, in a footnote, seems to cast a little doubt 
upon some statements that were made, especially in 
regard to Reynolds's speech to Girty. He says that 
of course the exact words as given by McClurg are 
incorrect, but they are given him by Draper, and 
because he had heard some old men tell of it who had 
been In Bryan's Station and who had themselves 
heard the speech he gives it. But for this, he says, 
he would reject It. My grandfather's sister was 
there, and she told me, and she never omitted. In de- 
scribing the attack, how young Reynolds took upon 
himself to be the spokesman, and that he knew Si- 
mon Girty personally. As she told It, Reynolds said, 
"Simon Girty, I know you well. You are an in- 
famous renegade. We all despise you ; and every 
one in this fort would rather die than to surrender to 
such a dirty dog as you are. And if I had the mean- 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 77 

est dog in Kentucky, I wouldn't disgrace him by call- 
ing him Simon Girty," 

How often have I heard her repeat the stoiy of 
the attack the Indians made upon the Cook cabin, 
in Innis Bottom on Elk Horn, four and one half 
miles from where Frankfort is now situated. In 
some way the account of that has been confused. I 
have not read a histoi*y of Kentucky in twenty-five 
years; though I remember the account given by Col- 
lins, an account which is measurably correct, and 
yet there is some little confusion in that and in recent 
accounts. In tlie Courier-Journal of October 8, 
1905, there is a beautiful picture of the place where 
the Cook family was massacred. It was one of the 
prettiest scenes on the Elk Horn. 

There must be some confusion in regard to the 
time when the old fort was erected, for there was 
no fort there when my people defended their cabin. 
As told me, after things settled down in Kentucky 
so that people could leave Bryan's Station, two of 
the Cooks, Hosea and Jesse, with a brother-in-law 
named Mastin, concluded to settle down on the beau- 
tiful Elk Horn. Mastin married Peggy Cook, who 
was there and knew of the circumstances. Jesse Cook 
had been out hunting and was shot, but they did not 
know it. The other two were shearing sheep. It 
was a charming spring morning, and they had cleaned 
their guns, and expecting no' trouble had left them 
empty after cleaning that they might dry, as was 
often the custom with us in Kentucky. They were 
old flint-lock guns, and unless the priming was kept 
dry they were not reliable. 

The women were cheerily singing some old gospel 
song, when all at once they heard the ringing of 
rifles close to the cabin. One of the men fell by the 
sheep he was shearing; the other man was shot, pre- 



78 Old Kentucky 

sumably near the heart or through it, but he ran and 
fell in the door and the women pulled him into the 
cabin and barred the door, which was made of heavy 
slabs. The cabin was made of logs closely fitted, 
so as to need no "chinking" as it was termed, up for 
about five feet; then the cracks were more open so' as 
to admit light and air. There was no crack large 
enough to put a gun through for five feet or more, 
and there was no way to shoot out without climbing 
up that high except one place, and that was where 
the facing was pinned up on the logs and had sprung 
a few inches in one or two places. When the door 
was barred the Indians made signs as if they would 
be very kind tO' them if they would let them in. The 
one who had stayed behind to rob the dead man 
came up, and he could speak some English. Aunt 
Peggy always thought it was Simon Girty, or some 
one he had taught some English to. They fired the 
cabin first at the door, trying to burn the door out, 
but the women put this fire out with what water they 
had in the cabin. The Indians then climbed up and 
threw fire through the upper cracks. That was easily 
put out when it fell to the floor; but the women's re- 
sources were very limited. Once fires were kindled 
so as to endanger the cabin in two places, but Aunt 
Peggy took the bloody shirt from her dead husband 
and put that out. One of the other women broke up 
a hen that was sitting, and rubbed the fire out with 
the eggs. In their desperation they used every avail- 
able means. 

After this the Indians drew off for a consultation 
and the women had time to think things over. The 
guns were there, the old powder-horn was there, but 
they could not find the bullets. One of the women 
found a piece of lead, bit off a piece, chewed it as 
round as she could in that short time, and they loaded 



Misconccplions About Kentucky 79 

the gun with this, and when it was loaded she peeped 
through the crack at the door-jamb and saw the In- 
dians out in the front. The chief, with his men 
around him, in order to strilce terror to their hearts, 
told what he would do to them if they did not sur- 
render; and thereupon the Indian sat down upon 
the body of Hosea Cook, having dragged it up in 
front of the home, and proceeded to scalp him, be- 
ing directly in range — as old Aunt Peggy said, she 
thought that God managed it for them. The gun 
was put through the crack and the Indian was shot 
squarely through the body. Women knew how to 
shoot in those days. Aunt Peggy said that when the 
ball struck the Indian he leaped high off the ground, 
gav^e a yell, and fell down dead. Though Indians 
are very brave when they have the advantage, when 
they think they are in danger they are veritable cow- 
ards. They took the body of the dead Indian and 
threw it into the Elk Horn, and it lodged down 
against a rock, which is called "Indian Rock" to this 
day. By this time the women had found a saucerful of 
bullets, and Aunt Peggy said that, strange as it may 
seem, they hoped the Indians would stay long enough 
to get a few more of them. But they left. She said 
during the whole scene there was not a tear shed, 
but after it was all over they took the bodies of their 
husbands and washed them and prepared them for 
burial. And the dear old woman said it seemed as 
if they shed tears enough over them tO' wash their 
faces. 

This is the story as I got it from my grandfather's 
sister and from my grandfather, who, by the way, 
was not there at that time but knew all the circum- 
stances. 

Whether all the incidents found in the different 
books written about early Kentucky life are correct 



8o Old Kentucky 

or not, it shows something of the stories that thrilled 
our young hearts, and makes some apology for the 
dislike of the Kentuckians for the Indians. When 
they would tell us how they had to hide their little 
ones in caves; how they were never sure when the 
morning sun rose that it would not set in the evening 
upon slaughtered families, burned homes, ravished 
women, their dear ones burned at the stake or tor- 
tured in a thousand fiendish ways, would it be un- 
natural that we would grow up with a feeling of 
hostility toward such foes? 

DISLIKE OF THE BRITISH 

One would not expect that people of their own 
race and language, who had had common ancestry, 
would commit such barbarities as the British did in 
the beginning of the war with the colonies up to 
the battle of New Orleans, a battle which occurred 
nearly a generation after the struggle commenced. 
The Kentuckians and their fathers had seen and ex- 
perienced these cruelties, which were a disgrace to 
any people claiming to be civilized. And while I 
shall speak, perhaps, in no very complimentary terms 
of these acts, yet the after years have revealed to us 
things that softened our feeling against the British 
people, for the mass of the English people did not 
concur in or help to cari*y out many of the most 
dastardly things that the British government did in 
this country. What King George, whom Hawthorne 
calls "a bewildered fool," and his immediate advisers 
did ought not to be charged to the English people. 
The King had to go out and purchase hirelings, and 
when the government could not succeed by that 
means it used as its allies and instruments the savage 
Indians. I had purposed to give some account of 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 8i 

how the British armed and sent the Indians out to 
the destruction of the homes of the white men, and 
the murder of their wives and families. The British 
strained every nerv'e to drag into the war the entire 
Indian population of the Northwest and often left 
the Indians to bear the burden of it after their 
ravages. And some who had commanded In this 
country seemed tO' take great pleasure in these Indian 
forays, where they stole everything they could get, 
burned the cabins, carried off the women and children 
into captivity, and committed every crime that they 
could commit. But why put into a book that claims 
to be half decent these black, unnatural, and infamous 
acts of a people who were really our kin? 

We were taught to dislike the British, and scarcely 
a boy was raised in Kentucky who did not hope 
for some opportunity to pay them back. One of the 
first patriotic songs that I heard was : 

"We are marching down to old Quebec, 
The drums and fifes are beating; 
The Americans are gaining ground, 
And the British are retreating." 

Whenever an opportimlty came for the Ken- 
tuckians to avenge themselves and chastise the British 
and Indians, they were there ready and willing. At 
the battle of Fallen Timbers there were a thou- 
sand Kentuckians under Wayne; at the battle 
of the Thames, where the war-cry was, "Remem- 
ber the River Raisin!" the Kentuckians were there 
doing a noble part; and the first boy bom in 
Kentucky, so far as we can learn, Richard M. 
Johnson, a man honored and loved. In the front of 
the battle met Tecumseh and slew him. But the 
Kentuckians never got to pay their full debt tO' the 
British until In the battle of New Orleans, nor 



82 Old Kentucky 

did this country have any degree of respect shown 
from England until the riflemen from Kentucky 
and old Tennessee sent back and defeated and dis- 
graced the boastful veterans who had never been 
conquered by European people. And had that battle 
not been fought before the final treaty was made 
and ratified, the map of the United States might 
have been different. The English people direct 
from the Old World did not at first come 
to Kentucky, for reasons known perhaps to them- 
selves and to us. I don't remember having seen 
in Kentucky, until I was nearly grown, but one 
man direct from England. He was a shoemaker of 
no social standing, and when the occasion rose he 
showed he was a dog. There was one other man I 
knew that it was said had spent his early years in Eng- 
land, then a number of years in Pennsylvania, and 
then came into our part of the country. I thought he 
was a clever man, but he was one of the greatest liars 
that I ever heard, and he told things that were not 
true when it would do no good. He told my father 
one day that he had been out hunting a run-away 
negro; that he started early in the morning, in the 
snow; he tracked him in the snow from neighbor- 
hood to neighborhood; and finally in the late 
evening, making his way back home, having given it 
up, he said he found the negro in a blackberry patch 
eating blackberries. 

If we were taught to dislike that class of people, 
was it prejudice? I want to say here that I have 
found in later years from acquaintance with many 
people from England some splendid, true, good men 
and women. I have found from Scotland and Wales 
some of the very best ministers that I have ever seen 
in this country. No people are fonder of home, and 
try to make better homes for themselves than the 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 83 

English people. People who have gone through 
England say that they are industrious, fiaigal, and a 
splendid people in all their home-life. To put it 
about right, I guess, a great deal of our best home-life 
habits came from England. Many of our best 
Christian people came from that country, and now 
there ought not to be any prejudice anyway. The 
people of the present day in England are not respon- 
sible for the atrocities that their ancestors practiced; 
and upon fuller acquaintance between the two classes 
of people, the admiration Increases. But In politics 
let America keep her eye on old England. 

PRIDE 

It has been asserted that Kentucklans are people 
of great pride. In one sense It Is false, and In 
another It is thoroughly true. If the word is taken 
in a bad sense, it Is not true ; If taken in good sense, — 
as Webster defines pride, "sense of one's own worth, 
and abhorrence of what Is beneath or unworthy of 
one; lofty self-respect, noble self-esteem; elevation 
of character;" — It is true. The early Kentucklans — 
I speak generally — were men and women of splendid 
physiques, and surrounded by everything to develop 
strong good bodies. At the risk of repetition, let It 
be said again, that for everything of natural worth, 
to make good homes, to produce every needed physi- 
cal comfort, to develop health and brain-power, no 
section of the world surpasses Kentucky. The esti- 
mate that the old preacher gave of It, when he 
returned from Kentucky to Virginia, was not far 
wrongs, when taken In a right sense. He felt so good 
when he had seen that land, that he thought he would 
preach a sermon on heaven; and after doing all he 
could to describe that beautiful world, he closed by 



84 ^ Old Kentucky 

saying, "Brethren, heaven is a regular Kentucky of 
a place." 

Kentuckians were proud of their homes, and as 
soon as circumstances would permit they builded 
better, and occupied, even before the passing away 
of the first generation, many of the best homes known 
in the West, Southwest, or Northwest. They took 
pride in the achievements of their ancestors, and held 
up to their children the noblest examples of trae 
worth. They took great pride in the upbuilding of 
their educational institutions, and spared no pains to 
provide the very best teachers and professors for 
their colleges. Centre College was chartered in 
1 8 19, when wild beasts roamed the forests in many 
parts of the State, and men were dressed in home- 
spun. Georgetov/n College was chartered in 1829 
and, like Centre College, had at its head and in its 
faculty distinguished men, and has had such from 
that day to this. And college after college has been 
added, until Kentucky ranks high in literary culture. 
When I was a boy there was a splendid female col- 
lege in Shelbyville, presided over by a Mrs. Trevis 
for a good part of a half century. 

They were people who had great respect for re- 
ligion ; and according to population, perhaps no 
State in the Union has ever had more evangelistic 
Christians. Church-life had a great influence upon 
the people of Kentucky. For fifty years after the 
State was admitted to the Union there was a very 
small part of the population living in towns, and 
churches were dotted all over the State. Almost 
evei"y neighborhood had its church, and children 
were taught to respect the ministers of the gospel and 
the duties of a Christian life. As Roosevelt has 
said, the Baptists seemed to have the greatest strength 
In the State. Their preachers lived among the 



Misconceptions J bout Kentucky 85 

people, labored with them, shared their sorrows from 
the beginning, helped fight the Indians, and lived 
as other citizens did; and as Roosevelt has said, 
the free democratic spirit of the Baptist church 
seemed to attract people more to that denomination. 
These churches constituted the best illustration of 
States-rights of anything seen in government. Each 
church had always been a pure democracy; no church 
had any control over another church; each church at- 
tended to its own affairs and pretended to have no 
jurisdiction outside its own membership; and there 
has been great unity in doctrine and practice in these 
churches. The ministers of these churches in the 
second generation were nearly all sons of the early 
pioneers, and, taken as a class, they were perhaps 
equal in brain-power, social influence, and wealth to 
any other profession in the State. Nlany of them 
inherited splendid farms from their fathers; and, 
take them all in all, no better class of men could 
have been found to lead and direct the Kentuckians. 
Their mode of discipline was such that they settled 
many disputes out of court. 

The Methodists and Presbyterians did not take 
to the country as naturally as the Baptists, and the 
former were the more zealous perhaps in spreading 
the gospel. My early recollections of the Methodists 
were that they were a praying people, a godly people, 
and a zealous people, and multitudes were conv^erted 
under their ministry — many of whom joined other 
churches. Take it all in all, the Presbyterians were 
perhaps, as far as learning was concerned, the most 
cultured in the State. I scarcely ever knew a Pres- 
byterian clergyman who was not a gentleman. But 
they did not go out much into the country; they were 
more apt to be found in the towns, and their mode of 
home-life and child-training was of the best character. 



86 Old Kentucky 

These were the three leading denomhiations in that 
early day in the State, and it seemed to hav^e been 
the mingling of these three with their peculiar char- 
acteristics that had a wonderfully good influence upon 
the communities. In that early day there was very 
little strife among the denominations and scarcely 
an infidel In the State. Under Providence they 
seemed to have combined the happy influences of all 
three upon the people. 

Why should not a people be proud of such an- 
cestry and such influences? 

I have not spoken of the influence of other 
denominations in that early day, because I know little 
about them. They all, so far as I know, loved 
liberty, freedom of worship, and taught their chil- 
dren love of country, and patriotism. 

Kentucky and the great Southwest had learned 
lessons from the follies of the people in the older 
States. They had read of the persecutions in New 
England. Many families in central Kentucky had 
known of their ancestors preaching from prison bars. 
The descendants of the Craigs, the Wallers, the Ire- 
lands and of others from Virginia were a noble class 
of people, and wielded a strong influence upon the 
community. From these families many distinguished 
ministers descended, whose influence is felt through- 
out Kentucky and other sections of the country to-day. 

CLANNISHNESS. 

Kentuckians are accused of being the most clan- 
nish people on the earth. In a bad sense, the accusa- 
tion is false. In a good sense, it Is probably true. 
If by the criticism people mean that Kentuckians will 
stick together and aid each other everywhere In a 
reasonable way, It Is true. The conditions under 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 87 

which the State was settled, and the lessons taught 
by those conditions, the lessons of brotherhood and 
dependence of sentiment and love, had these results. 
No people had harder struggles to establish homes 
than the early settlers of Kentucky; and the very 
trials they went through tended to bind them 
together, and to teach them the value of helping one 
another. And their spirit of clinging together was 
as strong as their religious spirit. They learned to 
know one another's worth and were conscious of hav- 
ing descended from the best stock In the world, and 
of being worthy of the esteem and regard of their 
fellow-men. 

There has always been considerable opposition to 
the Masonic fraternity. The Masons have been 
accused of sticking together and upholding one 
another whether In the right or wrong. Nothing 
Is more false than this accusation. They are a grand 
people In any part of the world, and whatever 
charges may be made against Masonry, the public 
cannot appreciate the amount of good the order has 
done. And there are little ignorant prejudices 
against them by those who know nothing about them. 
The only answer necessary to all these charges may 
be found in the consideration that the men belonging 
to this order receive in every community. And with- 
out fear of contradiction. It may be said that many 
of the very best citizens of all the communities belong 
to this fraternity. Next to church men, there is 
not a grander body of men In the world than the 
Knight Templars. 

Without any special bonds of organization, the 
Kentucklans constituted a great social organization, 
almost Masonic in its nature, and wherever they are 
found they are generally true. It has been said that 
there Is scarcely a State In this country where, If a 



88 Old Kentucky 

notice was inserted in the papers, "An old Kentuck- 
ian is in trouble and wants to see some friend from 
the old State," that they would not rally to him. I 
believe that it is true, but I do not believe that a 
Kentuckian would do a dishonorable act to relieve 
him. 

Fifty years ago it would have been impossible to 
tell how many relatives a member of an old Kentucky 
family had. They had married and inter-married 
and raised large families, until this people, in the best 
parts of the State, were practically one. One could 
never know when he would meet a relative. Fifty 
years ago a magnificent gentleman from either 
Indiana or Ohio approached me and said, "We are 
kins-folk; your father and I were cousins." I 
thought that I knew all my father's cousins, for he 
had only two uncles living and I knew all their sons. 
I said, "Sir, you are not my father's cousin, as I see 
it." He replied, "Have you never heard that a child 
was born to the widow of Hosea Cook — the Hosea 
Cook who was killed in the massacre at Elk Horn — 
three months after his death? I said, "Yes, I have 
been told so." "I am that child," he said, "the 
son of Hosea Cook who was killed three months 
before I was born." Yes, it is true, the Kentuckian 
never knows where he is going to meet his relatives, 
and it is true that Kentuckians will stick together to 
the third and fourth generation. My home has not 
been in Kentucky for forty years, but I love the old 
State as well as any man living in it; love her history, 
love her people, as every true Kentuckian does. 
"Once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian." 

LAWLESSNESS 

A great many people think that there was always 
a lawless spirit among the Kentuckians. The facts 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 89 

are that no people ever respected law or tried to 
uphold it more strongly than do Kentuckians, and 
they have ever been ready to defend the laws and the 
honor of their country, a fact demonstrated on 
nearly every battlefield known to our history since 
Kentucky became a State. She has always been 
ready to pour out her best blood in the defence of 
the Constitution of the United States, after there was 
a constitution. The charge has been made that she 
showed at one time a spirit to set up for herself; 
but at that time there was no settled government in 
this country; and when she wished to push the 
country westward, she was not only opposed by those 
who laid claim to the great Southwest, but even 
by her brethren on the Atlantic border. She felt 
that they had no sympathy for her, and if it was a 
question as to the unity of the government, and it 
then looked as if it were that, she intended to main- 
tain her post and push west her conquests. But as 
soon as the fact of a settled government was assured, 
her heart and her best affections went out to it; and 
it is a fact undisputed in history that her people did 
more to give this government great territory and to 
open It up to the Pacific shore than any other people. 
Soon the question came up as to the acquisition of 
territory, and the prejudice against extension of 
slavery made nearly all New England opposed to the 
conquest and annexation of Texas, and they took very 
little part in the Mexican war. Kentucky gave her 
best blood on the hard-fought plains of Mexico, and 
her men explored this great Western territory to the 
Pacific coast. 

A truly brave man Is full of human kindness, and 
has every respect for law. The greatest and bravest 
men of this country have always been men of tender 
sympathies. The greatest man, I think, this country 



90 Old Kentucky 

ever produced — of course we always except Washing- 
ton — ^was Robert E. Lee, and he had sympathy as 
tender as a woman's. Grant, of whom I may speak 
hereafter, has been considered by many historians as 
being a brutal man; but it is slander and falsehood 
to charge him with brutality. He was thoroughly 
brave, and always true to his word. After terms had 
been made with General Lee, in tenderness Grant 
said, "The officers shall keep their side-arms"; and he 
added, "The men shall keep their private property 
and horses, — they will need them when they go 
home." The cartel was signed and Grant's word 
was pledged to it. Afterward there seemed to be a 
disposition, upon the part of some in authority who 
had never been in a battle, to disregard this cartel, 
but Grant firmly replied, "If this cartel is not kept, 
there will be another war." Brave men are not law- 
less men. I have taken pains to Investigate the 
record of crime in Kentucky during the first sixty 
years of her history as a State; and I challenge any 
State to produce a better record. Kentucky had need 
of no great prisons. The penitentiary in Frankfort 
held but few criminals, and for sixty years was not 
larger than an ordinary workhouse in some States. 
Since the war I have no records. 

Kentucky has had a bad name on account of feuds 
In the mountain counties. The people there were 
like mountaineers in Scotland. They were brave, 
had very little education, and they did have feuds, 
but not In the early history of the State. These 
conditions have developed largely since the war, and 
are the result in a measure of outside Influences and 
of bad elements that came in there after the war. I 
have always sympathized with these mountain people, 
and were I a young man I would be willing tO' go 
there and devote my life to teaching and leading 



Misconceptions J bout Kentucky 91 

those people In a better way. Many of these moun- 
tain counties have furnished men of brains; and It 
will not be many generations until these mountaineers 
win be cultured, and many of them rich, because the 
mountains are full of minerals. The Kentuckians 
have never been a lawless people, and no Intelligent 
man will ever make the charge. 

WHISKEY 

Whatever may be said about whiskey and drunken- 
ness, I assert that no State, according to population, 
uses less whiskey than the better class of people in 
Kentucky has used in all the generations. Drunken- 
ness never could have produced such people as 
Kentucky has produced. A drunken, lawless parent- 
age could not have furnished the able man that 
Kentucky furnished; and to answer the question, 
"Why does every Kentuckian carry a cork-screw?" Is 
to answer a fool according to his folly. Kentucky 
has been a great whiskey producing State, and is one 
of the greatest sections in the world In the amount of 
tobacco It raises. But the people there do not use 
all their tobacco, nor do they use all their whiskey. 
Nature provided the most wonderful facilities for 
the production of these articles; and the world 
demanded, and needed them, as it supposed. That 
I may not be misunderstood, I may state that, 
in my whole life, I have opposed the use of 
intoxicants, and perhaps to-day am as consistent a 
prohibitionist as can be found. If my voice would 
accomplish that result, there would never be manu- 
factured or used In all these United States another 
gallon of alcoholic liquor. Of course, alcohol has 
been considered as almost indispensable in science 
and in medicine, and it is one of the great gifts to 



92 Old Kentucky 

mankind, if not abused; but the abuse of it has been 
so terrible that I believe the world would be better 
off were there never to be any more manufactured. 
I have always avoided fanaticism. The fanatic is 
unreliable and fanaticism has produced some of the 
gravest errors. But I do not believe that absolute 
prohibition is possible or practicable as human society 
is to-day. Prohibition laws may be passed, but they 
will never be fully enforced and practiced until the 
milennium. 

I am no advocate of the manufacture or the use 
of intoxicants, and alcohol and its products ought 
to be controlled just like any other terrible evil, but 
how to do it only God knows. 

But why Kentuckians have been singled out as a 
great whiskey-drinking people, with all the facts 
intelligently understood, I cannot comprehend. Phy- 
sicians say that the greatest single remedy known to 
science is opium and its products. If it were left 
to me there never would be another ounce of it made. 
If without opium and alcohol men would die, let them 
die ; for the curse these things have brought has over- 
balanced all the blessing, in my judgment. 

The manufacture of whiskey and brandies in the 
early day in Kentucky grew out of conditions. There 
was no limit to the production of cereals and fruits ; 
without using them there would have been no use 
for a large part of the labor, for at that early day 
there was no market convenient. There is a peculiar 
something in the water of the State that enables them 
to make, as judges of such things say, the best 
whiskey in the world. The early Kentuckians had 
enormous harvests of grain and fruits, and they 
naturally turned to the converting of these products 
into whiskey and brandies. There was a great de- 
mand for these, and many of the best men and best 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 93 

farmers put up their distilleries and made honest 
whiskey and brandy, and felt that they were doing 
no harm. As time went on, these little distilleries 
became unnecessary because markets could be reached 
by means of good roads, flat-boats, and railroads, 
and the small distilleries gave way to larger concerns 
which were usually conducted by the most reliable 
mon in the communities, and the products shipped 
out to other people. I believe I am correct in stating 
that during one year one hundred and seventy-nine 
thousand barrels of whiskey were shipped from 
Louisville alone. It was manufactured as a matter 
of business and sold as merchandise, and became 
famous throughout the world. It would be just as 
reasonable to suppose that the Hamilton-Brown Shoe 
Company, perhaps the largest in the world, use in 
their own communities all the shoes they produce, 
as that Kentucklans use all the whiskey they make. 
The Hamilton-Brown shoes, because they are an 
honest product, go all over the world; Kentucky 
whiskey goes all over the world. But all Kentucklans 
do not carry a cork-screw. 

There has been, too, a general disposition to 
charge Kentucklans with being drunkards, and it is 
mean and false to do so. I want to give an illustra- 
tion or two. Henry Clay was charged with often 
being drunk and similar charges have been made 
against other great statesmen of Kentucky whom I 
might name, because men were jealous of them. 
John G. Carlisle and George G. Vest have been held 
up as eminent Kentucklans who drank, and I have felt 
about it as Lincoln did, when Grant, then In command 
of the army, was accused of being drunk. "I wish," 
said Mr. Lincoln, "some of my other generals would 
use the same kind of whiskey." It Is a pity that 
some other men have not used the same kind of 



94 Old Kentucky 

whiskey that Carhsle and Vest did ! But these men 
were slandered. I was in Washington when George 
Vest v/as in the Senate and had made a national repu- 
tation. He and I were close friends, I might say 
v/e were warm personal friends, and I always felt 
it an honor to be recognized by Vest. I went over 
to the capitol and inquired for Senator Vest. I was 
very promptly informed that he was off in his room 
drunk, and that he would see nobody. He was 
locked in his room, and I sent up my name, and was 
requested to come up, and when I knocked at his 
door he promptly opened it, and said, "Cook, I am 
glad to see you. I want you to go home with me. 
They have worried me until I felt like I didn't want 
to see any living man ; and shut myself up here to 
get away from a lot of the damned fools." He was 
as sober as I was, and there was not even the smell 
of whiskey on him. 

About the time of my birth all the small distilleries 
had well-nigh disappeared, but occasionally one could 
be found. My old grandfather, who, in my estima- 
tion, was the highest type of manhood I ever saw, 
preached fifty years to one community, or rather four 
churches that he had organized, had at one time dis- 
tilled a great deal of whiskey and brandy. He told 
me that he had studied carefully through the entire 
Bible nineteen times, and in looking over the whole 
matter he thought that whiskey was a great evil. He 
discontinued the manufacture of it, and I do not 
remember having seen in his home so much as a 
bottle of whiskey. Of course some drank, and it 
was common to see it on the sideboards of other 
Kentucky homes, but it was not on his. And there 
may be a curse that follows these things, but a census 
of his family was taken some time ago, and it was 
found that of his blood or relatives, twenty-six of 



Misconceptions About Kentucky 95 

them became ministers of the gospel. It may be 
that such results would have come from the kind 
of whiskey. As an old preacher in Missouri, who 
was raised in Kentucky, closed after preaching a most 
ardent temperance sermon — "Brethren, the last argu- 
ment that I make against the use of whiskey is, you 
can't get the kind that we had when we were boys. 
If you could, I would tell you where you might go 
and get a little." 

I could name men in Kentucky, some of them living 
to-day, who distilled on a large scale, men whom I 
knew in college, and they were gentlemen. And in 
Kentucky to-day more than three-fourths of the 
counties have strong local-option laws and hold the 
lid on tight. The greatest curse that comes from 
whiskey has not been in the family use of It; it has 
grown out of the saloon influences. There Is nothing 
in the world so beastly and devilish as the saloon. 
If authority was given to the Devil to ruin mankind, 
he could not do it more surely than by establishing 
saloons in every community. There is no language 
capable of describing the evils of the saloon. 

But why Is It that Kentucky has been charged with 
making drunkards for the world, when one man can 
be found in one of our cities who has done more to 
corrupt and debase people than all Kentucky has In 
the last few years? And yet because he is a million- 
aire and Is not devoid of all feeling of generosity, 
his movements can scarcely escape the notice of the 
leading metropolitan newspapers. If he gets sick 
they have to tell how many nurses he has and where 
he goes In his private car. And that nasty spirit of 
toadyism makes the brewing of beer respectable. 
It Is not beer, properly used, that is destructive to 
health, I suppose, though I know nothing of it; but 
it Is the influence that these rich brewers have In 



g6 Old Kentucky 

establishing and keeping up saloons. It has been 
estimated that one brewing concern in St. Louis has 
opened and controlled twenty-two' thousand saloons 
in this country, establishing them and putting the 
commonest men at their head. This is simply what 
one city has done. Great God, what an influence 
these immense brewing establishments have had in 
debasing people! 



CHAPTER V 

DIFFICULTIES 

Any school-boy can look at his geography and tell 
how Kentucky is bounded, but a few words in general 
in regard to its conditions may be in order. Its 
climate is adapted to the cultiv^ation of everything, 
almost, necessary to human comfort. Its soil is in- 
exhaustible; eighty bushels of corn have been raised 
to the acre after the ground had been in culti- 
vation for forty continuous years and this with- 
out using an artificial fertilizer. The lime stone 
rock is full of phosphates, and there is a richness in 
the ground and in the grass than can perhaps not be 
found in any other section of the country. The 
abundant springs all over the State seem to be im- 
pregnated with ingredients, especially the phosphates, 
to be found in like proportions nowhere else. The 
"blue-grass section" is raised above the sea level 
hundreds of feet. Lexington has an elevation of one 
thousand and seventy feet. Material for making 
good roads is abundant, and the splendid turn-pikes 
that have been in the State for more than sixty years 
furnish as good roads as can be found in the world. 
Near Lexington iron was mined a hundred years ago, 
and it is said that the Indians worked copper mines. 
It is said that now the iron district of the State covers 
about twenty thousand square miles, and the coal 
area more than four thousand square miles. Nu- 
merous medical springs have been of great value to 
the State. The advantages that Kentucky has had 
from water transportation have never been appre- 



98 Old Kentucky 

dated. The Ohio River is the larj;^est of the affluents 
of the Mississippi in respect to its discharge of water. 
This averages one hundred and fifty-eight thousand 
cubic feet per second; that of the Missouri River 
averages but one hundred and twenty thousand cubic 
feet. With its numerous tributaries the Ohio River 
has five thousand miles of high water navigation. 
Its length below Pittsburg is nine hundred and sev- 
enty-five miles, and to this add the Cumberland and 
Tennessee, and it will readily be seen that Kentucky 
is easily reached by water on almost every side, ex- 
cept, of course, the mountain districts in the south- 
west. 

Many of the earlier settlers came into the State in 
small boats; but the earliest, perhaps, came over 
the mountains and along the Wilderness road. It 
would have been no vei*y difficult task for people to 
come to the State had it not been for the Indians. 
The State lay between the Indians of the Northwest 
and the Indians of the Southwest; in their wars with 
each other they passed through the territory now 
known as "Kentucky." It is said that more than 
twelve tribes claimed this land as their hunting- 
grounds, but no tribe claimed it as a place of perma- 
nent settlement. The pioneers could have gotten 
over the mountains, as we have just said, and pene- 
trated to all parts of the State through the vast, in- 
terminable forest, had there not lurked all along their 
path the fierce, cunning, savage Indians. They had 
more pleasure in the killing of a white man, woman, 
or babe, than they had in taking the life of a wolf 
or other wild beast. 

I assert it here for fear of forgetting it at the 
proper place, that, all things considered, nO' people 
were more just to the Indians than the Kentuckians 
were, until their worst passions were aroused by the 



Difficulties 99 

horrible and cruel treatment they received from the 
Indians. The Indians never owned the land, and 
yet treaties were made with the Indians of the North- 
west and the Indians of the Southwest, and whatever 
title they might have claimed the Kentuckians ac- 
quired by fair treaties, treaties which the Indians 
never regarded when it suited them to violate their 
word and make incursions to murder the peaceful 
families in their little cabins. To do justice, I might 
say that there were some noble old men among the 
Indians who would have kept these treaties, but they 
could not control the young braves. The study of 
Indians and of Indian character has been one of great 
interest to the people of Kentucky, for there was 
something coming up constantly to remind them of 
the Indian occupation of the ground. There were, 
in many a field, found enough arrow-heads to fur- 
nish all the people with flints for their old flint-lock 
firearms, for percussion-caps were unknown at that 
day. And then there were the stories told of Indian 
atrocities, stories told around the fireside and to the 
children, who would often be hid away when the 
parents were out from the cabin — hid away in po- 
tato holes and little caves so that, should the Indians 
kill the parents before their return from hunting the 
cows, or working in the fields, the children might 
not be burned to death should the Indians fire the 
cabin. 

How often was the question asked, Where did the 
Indians come from? And it is a question that has not 
been satisfactorily answered. There were evidences 
all over the countr\^ that a people had occupied it 
before the Indians, a people w'ho were dwelling here 
on the discovery of America. The mound-builders 
left their record, and some have been disposed to be- 
lieve that the Indians are the descendants of the 



lOO Old Kentucky 

mound-builders. Some have supposed that they 
came in after the mound-builders had occupied the 
country for generations and drove the mound- 
builders out, which opinion I incline to. The mound- 
builders left evidences of great fortifications, some 
of them very extensive; and if they had no foes, 
why the necessity of these? The whole trend of In- 
dian immigration seems to have been from the North- 
west. Some doubtless took the more southerly direc- 
tion, and went into Mexico and South America, 
where, on the discovei-y of this country, was found 
such remarkable development as to scarcely be be- 
lieved. How thrilling the story of the conquest of 
Mexico and Peru ! Those who went more easterly 
struck the Great Lakes and went on southeasterly, 
and occupied what we call the Southwest Territory; 
then they scattered down the Mississippi River and 
easterly until they held a large part of the South- 
west Territory, not as regular inhabitants, but simply 
roving bands. In the Mississippi Valley were found 
a multitude of mounds which seemed to have been 
used as burial-places, for when opened there were 
found only such things as would naturally be put 
into the graves with the dead. 

In 1876 I served as Centennial manager for Mis- 
souri, and with Honorable Thos. Allen, a man of 
wealth and culture, opened small mounds in south- 
east Missouri and took from them almost enough 
potteiy ware to make two wagon-loads. We could 
not tell the composition of the pottery, but the vessels 
were of various kinds and shapes, principally shapes 
of animals and birds. We determined these articles 
were put there to hold water and food for the benefit 
of the dead. Much of it was carried to Philadelphia, 
and from there It was scattered, I do not know where. 
Some of the finest mounds may be found along the 



Difficulties 10 1 

banks of the Mississippi River. On a farm which 
I bought through which flows the Wyaconda, be- 
tween those tw^o streams, were many mounds. On 
one of the largest of these was growing an immense 
hard maple, and other large trees around it. Anx- 
ious to know what the mound contained, I dug into 
it, going most all the way, twenty feet, through a 
peculiar kind of dirt which must have been brought 
there from some other place, for it was as absolutely 
dry as if it had nev^er seen water, and unlike the soil 
around. I found, nearly twenty feet from the top, 
what was apparently a grave. Where the skull was, 
it was protected by stones, and though the whole 
skeleton dissolved into dust with the exception of a 
few teeth and small bones of the head, it was evi- 
dent that the body had been that of a very large man. 
Though many of my ancestry were killed by In- 
dians, and though for two generations the intensest 
hatred burned in the breast of the white people 
against the Indians, I share none of that feeling 
to-day. I know that under proper conditions many 
of the Indians would have made noble men. I have 
gone through the Indian Territory; I have tried to 
educate the children of some of the leading Indians 
of the Territory; and I can truly say that many of 
them were men of the highest Christian type. I 
know personally John Jumper, chief of the Seminoles, 
and I had two of his boys, fine manly fellows. And 
while they learned books well, they had the peculiar 
Indian characteristics, for on Saturdays I have seen 
them, when they thought they were not perceived, 
with feathers in their hair marching and parading 
like warriors. Poor fellows, they both died of con- 
sumption. John Jumper, the old chief of the Sem- 
inoles, a man of will, and brain, and means, became 
an earnest preacher, and preached to his people till 



I02 Old Kentucky 

his death. His son-in-law, John Brown, became chief 
of the Seminoles, and I have been in his house and 
in the house of his brother, who' for many years was 
treasurer of the tribe, and I can say that the hospi- 
tality I received was as good as you would find in any 
gentleman's home, and the Seminoles were the best 
governed people that I ever saw. Among the Creeks 
were many noble, intelligent people ; and, population 
considered, there were more Baptists than in any part 
of the United States. I make this explanation for 
fear I may be thought a Kentuckian with a strong 
prejudice against the Indian. The Indians were cer- 
tainly cmel to us ; and what more should you expect, 
when you take into consideration that they were 
armed and encouraged, led on, their passion excited 
against us, by some traders in Pennsylvania, but most 
especially by the British. No people were so cruel 
to us as were the British. They armed the Indians 
and made them their allies in every cruelty; and after 
the close of the Revolution, and the signing of the 
treaties of peace, while the English held their forts 
along the Lakes, and while the Northwest Territory 
was harassed, the English leaders incited the Indians 
to eveiy beastly crime. They even came into Ken- 
tucky, against which they had the greatest grudge, 
and murdered our people. I could give the names of 
these leaders, but eternal infamy should blot out their 
names from human recollection. 

The movement into Kentucky started about the 
beginning of the Revolution, and while the colonies 
were fighting hard battles under Washington. Ken- 
tucky was then considered a county of Virginia, and 
the Virginians and the Tennesseeans were pushing 
westward and opening up great territory from the 
Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River. I wish 
I had the time to tell of what the noble men of Ten- 



Diffictilties 103 

nessee did, but some abler pen will tell that story 
some day. 

One of the darkest pages in history, and one that 
casts infamy upon the British people, or I should say 
upon the British rulers, was their conduct toward this 
country during the hard struggle for independence. 
For independence was not really assured, though 
treaties had been made, until General Jackson settled 
the British at the battle of New Orleans. The Ken- 
tuckians and Tennesseeans were always restless until 
the Mississippi was opened to the Gulf, and if the 
government would hav^e allowed them, they would 
have taken New Orleans long before it fell into 
American possession. There is only one bright spot 
in the infamous course of the British toward this 
country, and that is the masses of the English 
people sympathized with the Americans, and even 
in Parliament brave men advocated the cause of the 
colonies and opposed the war that was being made 
upon them. George the Third had to hire Hessians, 
the very slaves among the Germans, to fight his bat- 
tles, for the English would not furnish the men, and 
for that reason we can still love our English kin. 
The King seemed to select the basest characters and 
put them in authority to harass us, and up to 1 8 1 2 
the American people were never fairly treated. 

The story of this war I leave to history, but it 
would be injustice to our old Kentucky ancestors not 
to say that perhaps not in the history^ of the State 
were they so elated as after the victory of New 
Orleans. And they believed that, though there had 
been a cessation of hostilities between the nations be- 
fore the battle, that had it not been for that battle 
America would never have obtained the treaty she 
did. They thought it was a special providence. 
There were several in that battle from our section 



104 ^^d Kentucky 

of the State whom I knew personally, though I was 
but a boy. And how I have thrilled In hearing them 
relate instances connected with that campaign. They 
said that Lord Pakenham was a man of high char- 
acter and courage but he was so maddened by the 
American prejudice against the British that he told 
his troops just before the final battle that "Beauty 
and booty" was the watchword. He had the pick of 
English soldiers, some having been old soldiers with 
Wellington. 

Jackson had his principal troops from Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and the other States south of them. If 
there were any troops from the North I find no evi- 
dence of it. Of the regular troops there were less 
than one thousand with Jackson. It was a straight, 
square contest between the West and Southwest 
pioneers, the Southerners armed with such weapons 
as they had, against the well-equipped troops, the 
flower of the British army. 

On August 24, 1 8 14, the British had captured 
and almost entirely destroyed the capital of the 
United States; and to their lasting disgrace they de- 
stroyed the Capitol and other public buildings, books 
and papers; nothing was spared but the Patent Of- 
fice and the jail. Their success seemed good, and 
they determined to take control of the Mississippi 
River. "Old HIckoi-y," as he was called, — God keep 
his memoiy fresh in the minds of the American 
people, — made preparations to defend New Orleans. 
Sir Edward Pakenham and General Gibbs were in 
command of the British forces. Poor Jackson, with 
his half-equipped army gathered from the rural dis- 
tricts, stood between him and New Orleans In de- 
fence of the most sacred rights. January 8, 18 15, 
the English made the attack. Let me tell you about 



Diffi ail ties 105 

the battle as T have heard Colonel Ford, of Shelby 
County, tell it repeatedly: 

"There was an understanding throughout the whole 
army and especially among the Kentuckians, who 
hated the British, that they would die in the trenches 
rather than surrender. We expected it would be a 
terrible fight, and we not only worked, but we hoped 
and we prayed. Three or four days before the battle. 
General Pakenham sent on a coarse piece of paper, 
under a flag of truce, this message, 'Jackson, sur- 
render New Orleans. Pakenham.' He didn't even 
recognize Jackson as a general. Jackson wrote on 
the other side of the paper, 'Pakenham, come take it. 
Jackson.' In about two days another message was 
received, 'Jackson, I expect to take my breakfast in 
New Orleans Sunday morning.' Old Hickory turned 
the paper over and wrote on the other side, 'Paken- 
ham, if you do, you will take your supper in hell 
Sunday night.' These messages were made known 
to the little army and filled it with enthusiasm. 

"We worked like beavers, and got the trenches 
made the best we could, and word was brought on 
the morning of the battle early that the British were 
advancing. Orders were issued to lie low in the 
trenches and hold the fire. We could see the British 
coming, and they began shooting a good while before 
they were within real gun range, and not a gun was 
fired in return until it seemed they were right upon 
us. Those immediately in front were said to be a 
Highland regiment who had fought under Welling- 
ton. When they were up so close that we could have 
killed a squirrel at that distance, the order was given, 
'Take good aim and fire!' It flashed along the line, 
and the enemy went down like corn-stalks in a storm. 
They fell back in confusion, and while they were re- 
forming, our iruns were being reloaded. Some of 



I06 Old Kentucky 

our men were cr^'lng and some praying, and when 
they made the next assault it seemed that it was worse 
than the first. And almost before we knew it the 
battle was ended. Pakenham led the final charge, 
and was shot oft his horse, and confusion followed. 
It seemed as if the battle was fought and finished be- 
fore we really understood what was done. But when 
it was over and the result was known among the Ken- 
tuckians it was like a regular camp-meeting. They 
took off Pakenham, and, as we understood, sent 
him home in a cask of rum to preserve him. The 
Kentuckians showed that they could not only fight 
Indians but they could fight the flower of the British 
troops." 

I have given this account as it was talked of in 
old Kentucky. As for numbers engaged and mor- 
tality, you can find them from history. It was one 
of the most remarkable battles ever fought, and its 
results were of untold benefit to this country. Such 
was the manner in which those old Kentuckians spoke 
of the battle, and their admiration for Jackson can- 
not be told. There have been conflicting accounts 
in regard to the battle of New Orleans, and of Jack- 
son's course of conduct, and how he availed himself 
of all the means in his power to defend the city, and 
after it how he was treated by some of the citizens 
of New Orleans, especially those who had nO' love 
for this country; for New Orleans was full of for- 
eigners. There has been no battle fought in this 
country that I have been more interested in than the 
battle of Ne Orleans. My place in the South, as 
the crow flies was about one hundred miles from the 
old battle-grc jnd. I have gone and looked it over, 
and there remain the old trenches yet and the brick 
house in which Pakenham died. Some have exag- 
gerated the number of American troops, the British 



Difficulties 107 

troops, and of the number of killed and wounded 
on both sides. Hawthorne's history of the United 
States says that the Americans opened fire when the 
British advance was within two hundred yards, which 
is certainly a mistake, for the old rifies of the back- 
woodsmen and bordermen could not shoot so far. 
My impression is that the British were not as much 
as a hundred yards from the men lying in the first 
trench. But as Hawthrone tells everything beauti- 
fully, I will give his description of the battle. 

Pakenham got some guns in position, but the gunners 
were picked off by the Kentucky riflemen, and the guns 
were dismounted. On the eighth of January he attacked 
along the whole line. Pakenham and Lambert in person 
led ten thousand men against the Americans. The west end 
of Jackson's line was on the river, strengthened by a re- 
doubt; the east extremity was on a swamp. There was a 
ditch in front, and eight batteries. The redoubt was taken, 
but could not be held, owing to the deadly marksmanship of 
the sharpshooters. When the main British advance was 
within two hundred yards, the Americans opened fire, and in 
a short time two thousand and thirty-six of the enemy had 
fallen. The English veterans had never met such a fire 
from Napoleon's Grand Army; they were dismayed; they 
wavered ; Pakenham, and every other English leader ex- 
cept Lambert, fell ; the men turned and fled. 

Jackson, on the twentj'-first of January, marched into New 
Orleans in triumph. Volunteers and backwoodsmen, 
hastily mustered, showed themselves more than a match for 
the best drilled troops of the world. The gradual i,easoning 
of a democratic soldiery partly explains this; the heroic 
prowess to which men become accustomed in our pioneer life; 
but still more the inspiration, elsewhere in this war so much 
lacking, of great leadership. For rude and illiterate though 
he was, Jackson at New Orleans showed the five prime at- 
tributes of militant genius: decision, energ^% forethought, 
dispatch, skill in employing resources. In him, democracy 
at war was fully justified of her children ; and to quote 
Monroe's dispatch, "history records no example of so glorious 
a victor>' obtained with so little bloodshed on the part of the 
victors." The total American loss had been tliirteen men. 



io8 Old Kentucky 

Although it may seem out of place, I want to give 
a tribute to General Jackson from Hawthorne's his- 
tory. After the disaster at Fort Mims, where the 
Creeks captured it and slaughtered four hundred of 
the five hundred and fifty fugitives, men, women, and 
children, Hawthorne says: 

"It was a terrible calamity; but it had the effect of bringing 
into the foreground one of the strongest and most striking men of 
the age, without whose aid and influence America would have had 
a different destiny. He was an uneducated man, with rough 
manners and original ideas; strong and wiry of frame, uncouth 
and rude of aspect. The soul of independence and self-reliance 
was in him; he had always his own way of meeting emergencies 
and solving difficulties; narrow and harsh you might call him, 
for he was bred in the backwoods of Carolina and Tennessee; 
but his mind was singularly penetrating, and able to grasp and 
control the essential features of a given situation. He had homely 
humor, and that masculine tenderness which sometimes seems to 
surpass the tenderness of women. Altogether, he was a racy, 
native product, who might have passed his life as the autocrat of 
a village inn, but who was called by circumstances to be the head 
of the new western nation. Andrew Jackson feared nothing, and 
believed himself, not without reason, capable of anything. He 
was no Boston aristocrat, with one eye on England and the other 
on his own respectabiliity; but a man of the common people, 
shrewd, tough, bold, uncompromising, ingenious. As a soldier, 
he was always victorious in the field; as a man of public affairs, 
he had his policy and enforced it, and the marks thereof are still 
visible upon the face of our institutions. He had served in the 
House and in the Senate before he was thirty years of age, and 
was judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee before he was fort\'. 
When he was present, the world moved, and men appeared each 
at his true value. His narrow, rugged face, with its long, bony 
chin and deepset eyes, which could glow with a terrible wrath; 
his high, narrow forehead, covered with bristly, upstanding hair; 
his ungainly but unconquerable figure, all steel and whalebone, 
gave outward notice of the man within. He was a match for 
any man or anything; and when the Mims massacre brought him 
flaming from his Tennessee mountains, he was far enough from 
the theorizers and hesitators at Washington to have his own way, 
and to disobey orders as seemed to him best. The red tape was 
never made that could bind those lean, muscular limbs of his; 
and he was a man who was not afraid to grow, or slow to apply 
the lessons which experience taught him. 

"Jackson had already marched a body of troops to the South 
from Tennessee, and when it turned out that they were not re- 
quired, he had marched them five hundred miles back again, 
instead of leaving them where they were, to be gobbled up by 
the national recruiting sergeants. This was, of course, an act of 
military insubordination; but it was condoned, very wisely, by 
the authorities, and made Jackson immensely popular with his 



Difficulties 109 

people. \Mien therefore the cry of the Mims massacre was heard, 
Jackson and his men were the first to respond to it. They met 
the savages in northern Alabama, and in several battles routed 
them with slaughter. At the battle of the Horseshoe, in the spring 
of 1814, the Creek nation was annihilated, and their surviving 
chief, Weathersford, a half-breed, after making a characteristi- 
cally Indian speech, such as the novelist Cooper might have 
written for him, to Jackson, formally surrendered to him the 
nothing he had left. It might repay a curious scholar to make a 
study of these Indian utterances, and draw from them a deduc- 
tion as to the nature of the Indian mind. There is uniformly an 
artless, impudent imbecility about them which leaves one in doubt 
whether the orator is bluffing, or merely in love with the noise 
of his own voice-" 

It may be asked why, as General Jackson was not 
a natlv^e of Kentucky, I have taken such Interest In 
him and In the battle of New Orleans. It Is an un- 
disputed fact, SO' far as I can discover, that the Ken- 
tucky riflemen were put In the front, Jackson de- 
pending upon them as the best marksmen In his army, 
to defend the most dangerous position. It Is really 
diflicult to divide the honors between the Kentucky 
riflemen, the Tennesseeans, and MIssissippIans, but 
we have always claimed It as a battle In which the 
Kentucklans won great distinction. No troops ever 
served under Jackson who had a higher admiration 
for him, and this admiration was mutual. The influ- 
ence these old Kentucklans who served under Jack- 
son exerted In the politics of the State, gave him pre- 
eminence over the favorite son of Kentucky. 



CHAPTER VI 

SOCIAL LIFE 

In this day of exciting fiction and highly-drawn 
descriptions of fast living, there is a charm in bring- 
ing out the everyday home-life of the family. It 
shows the beginning of the formation of character, 
and the influences that develop the after life of a 
people. There is a charm about family life that the 
majority of good people take pleasure in. A tale of 
the early life and surroundings of people who have 
succeeded is read perhaps with more interest than de- 
scriptions of their higher achievements. Nothing 
interests people more in the career of Abraham Lin- 
coln than the incidents and struggles of his early life; 
even the log-cabin in which he began life is viewed 
with interest by the multitude, and so much as a chip 
from it is appreciated. And so people read with 
pleasure of the ever3^day life of kings and noblemen, 
people who care but little about the achievements of 
the King and his nobles. Victoria of England, per- 
haps, all things considered, the most queenly woman 
that ever lived, gives some tender and beautiful pic- 
tures of her life in a diarv she published, "Life in 
the Highlands." The incidents are so home-like that 
we are naturally drawn with tender sympathy to her. 
The more we see of the inner life of such people the 
more we admire and profit by their example. Though 
a queen, she had a pure, lovely, motherly character. 
In that diary there is a simple little extract which 
seems almost frivolous, but which really brings out 
her loving nature: 



Social Life 1 1 1 

We got up at a quarter to six o'clock. We breakfasted. 
Mamma came to take leave of us; Alice and the baby were 
brought in, poor little things, to wish us good-by. Then 
good Bertie came down to see us, and Vicky appeared as voy- 
ageuse, and was all impatience to go. At seven we set of? 
with her for the railroad, Vicomtess Canning and Lady 
Caroline Cocks in our carriage. A very wet morning. We 
got into the carriage again at Paddington and proceeded to 
Woolwich, which we reached at nine. Vicky was safely 
put into the boat, and then carefully carried on deck of the 
yacht by Renswick, the sergeant-footman, whom we took 
with us in the boat on purpose. 

The influence of that mother has told upon her 
descendants, many of whom have held the highest 
positions in European courts, and may be seen in her 
children's children in their love of home and family. 
Tt is this characteristic in the German Emperor that 
makes all true men and women his admirers. The 
interest that President Roosevelt takes in the home- 
life, and little things of the people of whom he 
writes, shows one of the prevailing traits of his na- 
ture, love of home and family; and no one can read 
his works without feeling that he is a true man in all 
his purposes. In speaking of the Kentuckians he 
tells of the early settlers — how they dressed, built 
their plain little homes, what they ate, how they 
fared and suffered, courted, married, raised children, 
frolicked, shared with the needy, fought Indians, 
and, If need be, fought each other or anybody else. 
In inquiring into the cause of the peculiar character 
of the Kentuckians, we will especially give attention 
to the home-life, their method of training and edu- 
cating their children. 

The first settlers of Kentucky were very poor; 
afterward men of means began to come into the 
State, men drawn principally from the hills and 
mountains of Virginia. They brought all they pos- 



1 1 2 Old Kentucky 

sessed on one horse; and in some instances, doubt- 
less, carried all they had on their own backs. The 
blue-grass region of Kentucky was all wooded, heav- 
ily wooded, and to-day it would cost fifty dollars an 
acre to clear up and make ready to cultivate. At 
first they could only clear a small patch and gradually 
enlarge that patch until it came to- be a large field. 
The little cabin served them for a home, and it was 
all they could do for a long time to feed and clothe 
their increasing families. What were their children 
to do for an education? The first lesson a child 
learns from its mother; and if she is a tender and 
a godly mother, she instils into the minds of her 
little ones lessons that are the foundation for a noble 
character. The early permanent settlers were a 
people who had the highest regard for religion; 
whatever may be the opinion of others in regard tO' 
them, they were certainly a people who reverenced 
God and wanted to do right, and so they taught 
their children. Whatever other books were want- 
ing, each family had its Bible, and this being almost 
the only book in the household, it was highly prized, 
and its lessons instilled into the mincis of the little 
ones. An angel looking upon these poor families 
in the evening hour would have found a mother, with 
the little ones around her, instructing them and pray- 
ing with them. One of the first lessons taught was 
that of strict honesty. 

How well I remember the stoi-y of the first man 
that I heard of being hanged! His first crime was 
stealing a pin when he was a boy; then he stole a 
knife; and he went on until he stole little things 
from his neighbors; and finally, when he became a 
man, in the robbing of a traveler he murdered him, 
for which crime he was hanged. What a lesson this 
stealing of a pin taught ! It was considered a great 



Social Life 113 

crime to tell a He; it ought to be considered a crime 
to-day. It was considered a disgrace for one to be 
a liar; and no Kentuckian would allow another to 
call him such a name with impunity. In early days 
there were few courts, and men had tO' trust one 
another's word; a man who would not keep his word 
could command no respect. If one made a promise 
to buy or sell anything at a certain figure and refused 
to keep his contract, he was considered dishonorable, 
and people would have no business dealings with 
him. Children were taught to love and venerate 
their parents, and were always ready to help them 
and vindicate them, and a boy would fight quicker 
for his father's or his mother's honor than for his 
own. Children were taught to be unselfish; and 
indeed the circumstances made it necessary for them 
to be so, for the majority of the families were large. 
It was nothing unusual for a family to have from 
twelve to sixteen children ; and each had his own 
duties and his own place, and all clung together with 
a helpful spirit. One of the happiest and best-regu- 
lated families I ever knew had sixteen children, all 
bright and good; and so far as I know there was 
nothing wrong connected with the name of any one 
of them. One of the family married a congressman's 
daughter; I know several of them were ministers of 
the gospel; and some were teachers, some fanners, 
and some professional men. Though their father 
had only two hundred acres of land, they were well 
provided for; and had a vote been taken as to who 
was the best man in the county, the father of these 
children, Israel Christie, would have probably been 
selected. 

There was very little selfishness among the early 
Kentuckians; money was not a god then. Money is 
8 



114 Old Kentucky 

good in its place. It builds shelters over us; it puts 
clothes on us; furnishes means for an education; 
feeds the poor, builds churches, develops the coun- 
tiy, increases happiness — when used in its right 
place. But when used to increase pride, to corrupt 
and poison the minds of men until it inflames them 
and drives them to oppress and disregard the most 
sacred rights of others, it becomes a terrible poison, 
distilling itself throughout the land. It is like other 
great necessary blessings, if properly used it works 
great good. There is scarcely a blessing in human 
life, which, when perverted, does not become a curse. 

The Kentucky children were taught that character 
was evei-ything, and to defend it, if need be, with 
their lives. They were taught that home was a sa- 
cred retreat, and that he who invaded its purity might 
expect death. The marriage tie was sacred; for a 
long time there was no divorce law in Kentucky. 
Would it not be expected that children trained under 
these influences would be different from those trained 
under many of the corrupting influences of modem 
society? There was a sympathetic influence that per- 
vaded those communities; was one sick, or in need, 
or had been unfortunate, brotherly hands were ex- 
tended him and his, and everything possible was 
provided for his comfort. And when death came 
into a family, sympathizing hearts went out to- those 
in trouble; and the tears of a strong manhood and a 
tender womanhood mingled with the tears of the 
bereaved. 

One of the most marked characteristics of Ken- 
tucky life was the love and practice of genuine hos- 
pitality. That lesson was taught by word and deed; 
it was taught at home; it was taught by the minis- 
ter in the pulpit; it was taught as one of the cardinal 
virtues of social life. The Bible is full of this lesson, 



Social Life 115 

and some of the most beautiful pictures in it are pic- 
tures of a generous hospitality, especially to the 
stranger. The Saviour and his apostles taught it — 
"Be mindful of entertaining strangers, for thereby 
some have entertained angels unawares." Kentucky 
hospitality was not grudging hospitality, it was open, 
frank, free ; for the guest v/as expected to be as much 
at home as the host. And this was not done in the 
spirit in which it is too often done now, in the ex- 
pectation of being entertained in return. I never 
knew of a stranger being turned from the door of 
any Kentuckian as long as I lived in the State, and 
cannot remember that any charge was ever made for 
such kindness. The families were not inn-keepers 
and they did not keep account of visits with each 
other, and at the end of the year balance accounts — 
as it has been reported is done in some parts of the 
world east of us. Some of the people were poorly 
prepared to entertain, but they did their best. Nor 
did the rich spurn the poor. I never knew but one 
selfish Kentuckian, and he was not a native of the 
State; he was without the spirit of hospitality; he 
entertained nobody, and nobody entertained him. 
It is a fact that he was so mean and selfish that he 
was mean and cruel to his slaves who worked for 
him. This was the only exception that I ever knew, 
and everybody hated him, and the meanest dogs in 
the countr}' were named for him. As a general thing 
the old Kentucky home was the home of the maimed, 
of the stranger, and of those in need. 

Few things have exerted a greater influence upon 
people than their hospitality where it is genuine, 
frank, cordial, and grows out of a true spirit. Enter- 
taining may be done by anybody, either for policy, 
or selfish pride; but one to be genuinely hospitable 
must have it in the very nature; it must be inborn. 



ii6 Old Kentucky 

No man can be a thorough gentleman hi feehng that 
is not born with the instincts of a gentleman. He 
can be polite, and conform to all the rules of polite- 
ness, but there will be something lacking unless he 
has the instincts of a gentleman, and when he has 
those instincts he will show them under almost any 
condition of life. The bravest in war are the most 
tender to those who are in suffering; and the tnily 
hospitable man will be kind to any one that may be 
entertained under his roof. Of course the kinds of 
entertainment depend, in a measure, upon the ability 
to entertain, upon the worldly rank and wealth. As 
a general thing, truest hospitality is found among 
those in the humblest walks of life. 

One thing that I remarked in my boyhood in Ken- 
tucky was that no man of wealth ever was inhospit- 
able to his poor neighbors. The wealthiest family in 
our neighborhood was marked for its kindness to 
those that came within its doors. This family was 
named Meriweather, and I think I may say without 
exaggeration that the estate was worth a quarter of 
a million of dollars, and yet Aunt Kittie, in her con- 
versation with her neighbors or in her home, never 
seemed tO' know that she was "above" the families 
around her. The family that had acted proud and 
haughty and selfish, whatever might be its wealth, 
never had any standing in that community. It was 
a marvel how rapidly Kentucky was settled in the 
beginning; and how rapidly the people developed 
their homes and provided for the greatest comforts 
of human life. I have seen, in the fifties, every- 
thing considered, as elegant homes and as elegant 
entertainment in Kentucky as I have ever found in 
later years in any of the States. When I was in 
Georgetown College, from 1855 to 1858, my father 
being dead and the family scattered, I had no home 



Social Life 117 

and I spent a great part of my vacations visiting 
around with my college-mates through the different 
counties. It would really give me pleasure to men- 
tion numbers of them that lived In the most comfort- 
able and elegant style. Many of my school-fellows 
lived In counties Immediately adjoining Georgetown 
and Lexington, and It Is like a pleasant dream to go 
back over those scenes of enjoyment we had together. 
Had I been a prince I could not have fared better 
than I did with the Hunts, the Paynes, the War- 
fields, the Clays, the Morgans and Breckinrldges — 
oh, I can't name them all. But, all In all, I think the 
most charming time I ever spent was at the home of 
Robert W. Scott, not far from Frankfort. His fa- 
ther, Joel Scott, was a born nobleman ; his two sons 
that I knew, John and Robert, were worthy of their 
father. Robert Scott's home seems to me now as a 
dreamland of beauty. He was a fine gentleman, and 
his wife, I think, was a sister of Honorable William 
Preston, one of the noted men of Kentucky. While 
I was there the three children that I remember best 
were Mary, Ella, and John; Preston, the older one, 
was not there. A lovely young lady from eastern 
Kentucky, Miss Dixon, was a guest at the same time. 
The hospitality was perfect; the home delightful; 
the table was laden with ever>'thlng that was beau- 
tiful and good; the servants were well trained, and 
there was enough to meet every want; the horses 
were the pick of the State ; the carriages elegant and 
comfortable; and everything seemed to be directed 
with a view to the comfort of their guests. The 
roads were splendid; the scenery beautiful; and we 
could drive in the moonlight or In the early morning. 
I feel like leaving, as to the many families, also 
who were just as kind, this memorial to the family 
that gave me the happiest entertainment that I had 



ii8 Old Kentucky 

known. The enjoyment of young people in those days 
was not like it is now. There was plenty of litera- 
ture; there was perfect freedom to enjoy what you 
would; but I never saw a playing-card in that house; 
never heard a word that was not pure, nor did I see 
one act that indicated anything but purest nobility 
of soul. For pleasure we did not have to seek the 
card-table, the dance-hall, nor the wine-cup. There 
was prayer in that house every day; and we romped 
like children, and mingled as one family. 

People that cultivate hospitality grow to be better, 
and when they transmit as a gift to their children 
they give them that which should produce happiness, 
the exaltation of social life, the love of home, and 
that which makes them better citizens. People that 
are inhospitable are apt to be selfish and narrow. 
But why should I say more about old-time Kentucky 
hospitality? As far as the name of the State has 
gone it has been recognized without question. 

In the year 1847, or thereabout, on a cold threat- 
ening night in early winter, about dark, as snow be- 
gan to fall and the family were gathered around the 
open fire, ready to enjoy a good, warm evening meal, 
such as could be found in those days in the old Ken- 
tucky home, after the abundance had been gathered 
in for the winter, — the abundance of fruits, vege- 
tables, cider and choice meats, — a timid, uncertain 
knock was heard at our door. Father answered the 
call, and as he was sure it was not the hearty knock of 
a neighbor, he went to see who it w^as, instead of 
calling out, "Come in," as was the usual custom. 
All listened, and every child was quiet. 

"Can I get to stay all night? I have no money 
and am sick." 

"Where are you from?" 

"New Orleans, and have walked all the way, and 



Social Life 119 

to-day have not tasted food except a few walnuts 
that I picked up by the road side." 

I never saw father hesitate before, but in those 
days New Orleans was thought to be a pestilence- 
breeding ground, full of all fevers and malignant 
diseases; and the question of bringing any of those 
diseases into the family was a serious one. Every- 
thing was against the poor stranger; he was sick, 
almost in rags, and he had no money. Mother went 
to the door with her little ones around her, and her 
heart appealed to her and fears were set aside. She 
said, "Billy, bring the stranger in. Come right in, 
sir." 

With feeble, trembling steps he staggered in, and 
soon was seated by the bright fire. Great tears rolled 
down his sad face. This was the first tramp we had 
ever seen, and we all cried; our hearts went out to 
greet and cheer this sorrowing stranger. Having 
been warmed and rested — he could take nothing on 
his stomach, so long unaccustomed to good food, but 
a little tea — he was placed in a good warm room, 
bathed, and warm, clean clothes were put on him, 
and he was placed on a soft bed, such as his poor 
body had not been accustomed to for a long time. 
He was tenderly cared for, and in a few days began 
to gain strength; then comfortable clothes, though 
poorly fitting, were furnished him. When able he 
told us his sad story. 

His name was William Shaw, and he was the son 
of a wealthy farmer in the valley of Virginia. He 
had been tenderly raised and well educated. There 
were two boys, his brother being named Thomas. 
They were of a proud family. William, having 
learned something of the world, grew restless on the 
farm and wanted to try active business. After much 
persuasion his father furnished him means to load a 



120 Old Kentucky 

flat-boat, and he started to New Orleans, determined 
to make his fortune before he returned. He sold his 
cargo to advantage, and had means to enjoy life and 
to enter into business. He had an honest, trustful 
nature, and before he was aware of it his means were 
well-nigh consumed and supposed friends deserted 
him. Things every way went against him; for, hav- 
ing been raised tenderly, and not acquainted with 
the ways of the world, he was not prepared to meet 
the realities of a life of struggle. He was honest, 
proud, sober; and, in a strange city, full of vice, and 
of people of all nationalities, what could he do? 

Two things had brought him into^ trouble — inex- 
perience, and trust in others. And, from what we 
could learn, he lost, while trying to recover his money 
as he saw his store going, by gambling. Having 
been accustomed, by habit too frequent among gen- 
tlemen at home, to gamble, he hoped to recover 
something; but in those days, on the river, and in the 
city, there were expert gamblers, and he was no 
match for them. When reduced almost to want he 
sought means of employment. He was not practical; 
the only way open was to go to hard work, and he 
was neither large nor stout, and wholly unaccus- 
tomed to manual labor. His descriptions of the ef- 
forts he made and of his loneliness were pitiful. 

Why did he not go home, or write for aid? That 
was a question that seemed hard to answer. His 
explanation was that his pride and sense of shame 
drove him to desperation, and he determined to die 
in an effort to recover something. He had hope that 
he might recover sufficiently to appear at home at 
least in a decent manner; and he drifted from place 
to place, not writing or receiving letters for nearly a 
year. Letters were written to him at New Orleans, 
but he was drifting from place to place. After a 



Social Life 121 

while, as a last resort, he took his axe and went out 
on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain to cut wood with 
common laborers and negroes ; he was utterly desper- 
ate. Finally he got intO' south Mississippi, and 
thence started home on foot. He said that for 
months he was in a dazed condition. He made his 
way to our home, a distance of nearly a thousand 
miles, on foot. He still held to his purpose to work 
to gain means to dress himself decently and to go 
home. He thought may be he could find work in 
one of the States as he passed through; but each 
mile that brought him nearer home increased his de- 
sire to travel on. He was scarcely competent to 
think or act rationally. 

After gaining health and strength in our home he 
begged to be permitted to earn something and then 
prepare himself to return to his father's house. He 
worked faithfully and did all he was allowed to do, 
for we all had the tenderest sympathy for him. He 
would accept no money or help when he was able 
to work, still refusing to let his home folks know his 
condition. Finally, father learned the address of 
his people, and wrote them without his knowledge. 
In those days the means of communication between 
Virginia and Kentucky were difiicult in winter, and it 
was a month before any information came, and it 
was a question whether the letter reached its destina- 
tion, or whether the man's representations were cor- 
rect. In the early opening of spring, one day when 
just a little snow was on the ground, about noon, we 
were all in the house when a call was heard at the 
front gate. Instantly William began to tremble; 
and not expecting anything, as he had not been in- 
formed of father's having written a letter, he cried 
out, "That is Tom's voice!" We all rushed out, and 
beheld an elegant gentleman, finely mounted, still 
sitting on his horse. He instantly dismounted, and 



122 Old Kentucky 

the two brothers rushed into each other's arms, ex- 
claiming, 

"Tom, dear Tom !" 

"William, dear Wilham!" 

"Mother?" 

"Dead." 

"Father?" 

"Dead. But, William, they thought of you con- 
stantly. Both died with your name on their lips; 
prayed for you, and left — if you ever returneci — 
their blessing, with a full share in all the inheritance 
acquired for us two boys. We felt that you were 
dead. Thank God ! that you still live and can go 
back home; we will be as we were when little boys, 
always stay together, live together, and every day 
we can gO' and place flowers around the graves of 
those dear ones who would have died happier had 
they known you were alive and could come home." 

We all, even the negroes, cried like babies. Such 
gratitude as was shown us for simply doing a duty, 
offers of gold and presents to pay us; but not one 
cent or present of value would be received, and when 
they remembered that we were of good Virginia 
blood they saw the impossibility of paying. We had 
been paid already. They wanted to take me home 
with them tO' educate me, even to make me an heir; 
but there was no one in our home who could be 
spared. In a day or two I went with them to Frank- 
fort to bring back the horse William rode when he 
went away. The boat started with them while I was 
there, and the tender caresses they gave me nearly 
broke my heart; a lonelier boy was nowhere to be 
found than I was during that long ride home alone 
that day; and there was in my selfish heart a feeling 
that I wished I might have accepted the gold watch 
they offered me. I wanted the watch; but every feel- 
ing of my nature revolted at the thought of taking 



Social Life 123 

for hospitality — my people would have held me as 
an Achan. 

William went home with his brother; and the 
two were like lovers while William lived; but the 
exposure to hard fortune and want in the South left 
seeds of disease in his body, and before long he was 
placed by the side of his dear mother, Thomas, sad 
and lonely, lived to see the wreck of their beautiful 
home during the unnatural and cruel desolation of 
the war. 

Do 1 think that many Kentucky families would 
have been so kind as ours? I do not believe that 
many in my part of the State, or with whom I was 
acquainted, would have been less kind. It was just 
the Kentucky nature. Besides the pleasure that it 
gives a generous soul to be kind and sympathetic 
toward the needy, I believe it is the best investment 
that one can make. "Bread cast upon the waters will 
return"; it may be after "many days," but it will 
come back. It is the best investment one can make 
for one's children's children. I believe this because 
the great Master has taught it, and I believe from 
my own experience. From the time I began my ca- 
reer, a fatherless boy, to the present, the only one left 
of that family that cared for the poor wanderer, 
never have I been turned unkindly from any door or 
failed to receive the best hospitality the home of- 
fered — from the poor hut to the most elegant and 
wealthy homes in this country, and the homes of 
statesmen and foremost men of letters and of cul- 
ture. Such fortune has followed me in many States, 
in the largest cities, and all through one of the gloom- 
iest and most fearful wars of modern times. How 
often has it seemed to me that I have been drawing 
from the fund of mother's kindness to a creature in 
want, and that it has been paid with compound inter- 
est again and again. 



CHAPTER VII 

HOME-LIFE 

In describing home-life it must not be taken for 
granted that this description applies to all the fam- 
ilies in Kentucky. C.Tsar said that all Gaul was di- 
vided into three parts, and Kentucky is divided into 
many more, so far as property and social conditions 
are concerned. The best part of the blue-grass sec- 
tion was peopled principally by the better class of 
Virginians and some of the other States. But there 
are mountainous clistricts, where the mountaineers 
seem to be a distinct class, and how they lived I don't 
know except by hearsay; and so far as I know, 
there was not a county in what is termed the blue- 
grass section that has not a good many poor people 
in it. There are streams, hills, and creeks in some 
portion of each county, along which a great many 
poor people settled. They w^ere usually the poor 
who came in late from Virginia after the best land 
was occupied, and there is no question that some 
as good Virginia families settled in these poor hills 
as settled in any other part of the State. But on the 
whole they lived in inferior houses; cleared out little 
patches of land for cultivation; and so pressed were 
they for a living that they neglected the education 
of their children, and many who bore the names of 
distinguished Virginia families raised children who 
could scarcely read or write, and transmitted to them 
much of the common negro language that they had 
learned from contact with the negroes in Virginia 
before coming to Kentucky. They were not crimi- 
nals, but unfortunate poor, fairly industrious, brave, 



Home -Life 1 25 

honest, and Ignorant. Often In the spring would 
they come into what were termed the "settlements," 
to procure a little bacon and corn, which they usually 
got whether they had money or not. In my earliest 
recollection they would bring into the "settlements" 
clap-boards, axe handles, and hoop-poles, which were 
needed for the barrels in which very many of the 
best Kentuckians put their whiskey to haul to Louis- 
ville. And I have lived to see some of the boys who 
hauled those hoop-poles rise from their very poverty 
and become "good livers," and some of them became 
wealthy. The "blood" was there, but the circum- 
stances were against them. Many of these families 
had but one horse, and several families would join 
together to haul out their loads and do the grinding 
at the grist-mill, where it usually required four horses 
to work successfully the best grist-mill. 

One circumstance made a deep impression upon 
me when a boy, and excited my sympathy for these 
people. There were four brothers who bore the 
name of a distinguished family in Virginia; one died; 
the other three had to go to the mill, and they car- 
ried the grist of their brother's widow. In going 
to the mill they decided as to which "turn," as they 
called it, should be ground first. The widow's turn 
was to be ground first, the eldest brother's next, and 
so on through the three, according to age. They 
hitched up their horses and went out to drive and 
care for them. The miller, not knowing the ar- 
rangement they had made, put up the first turn that 
he came to. After they had ground awhile the eld- 
est brother went up to see how near the first turn was 
out, and discovered that the widow's had not been 
touched, but that one of the other's had been put up. 
He dashed down and halloed to the drivers to stop 
the mill; and they caught the horses and stopped 



126 Old Kentucky 

them. Mr. Roberts, the miller, a splendid man, 
went down to see what was the matter, thinking that 
some terrible calamity had happened. The oldest 
brother cried out as if in deep distress, "Stop the 
mill! Stop the mill! My Lord, the wrong turn is 
up. It will never do to rob the widow ! The wid- 
ow's turn must be ground first." After reasoning 
with them for some time, Mr. Roberts persuaded 
them that it would make no difference, that all the 
turns would be ground before they left, and finally 
they yielded to his persuasion. 

This is literally true, and I tell the story to show 
the simplicity of these poor, untrained minds. 

Many of the people who lived along the streams, 
or creeks, as they called them, lived in a very poor 
way; in how poor a way I can not tell, but will give 
one other circumstance of lowly life. 

A certain young preacher, who had charge of the 
New Liberty Female College, in Owen Count}^ was 
called upon to celebrate the rites of matrimony down 
on Eagle Creek. A mischievous physician of the 
town, who had practiced down in that part of the 
county, and knew the conditions, insisted upon going 
as guide and companion. When they rode up to the 
door of the cabin, a lank, tall, fuzzy-headed man met 
them and courteously Invited them in. There seemed 
to be little preparation for a wedding. The table 
was set, on which was some kind of fowl, that looked 
more like a crane than anything else, and there was 
some bacon, bread, coffee, and a chunk that looked 
like ginger-bread. There was a curtain stretched 
across the cabin. One or two neighbors soon came 
in, when the announcement was made that the wed- 
ding might proceed. Now the young preacher had 
never married but one couple before, and having 
made a great failure in the ceremony, he had con- 



Home-Life 127 

eluded to write out a form of ceremony and commit 
it. He had prepared what he thought was about 
the proper thing, commencing, "Sir, do you take this 
lovely young woman that leans upon your arm to 
be your lawfully wedded wife?" and so on. When 
the curtain was pulled aside, out came an old lame 
woman leading a blind man by the hand ! How the 
ceremony was finished I never learned. But the 
mischievous doctor, who had practiced all over those 
hills, knew how the minister was bored, and would 
not consent to leave until all hands had partaken of 
the wedding feast, v/hich, one may imagine, was not 
inviting. The preacher, feigning sick headache, or 
any other kind of ache that would excuse him, did 
not eat. 

This Is true, and not overwrought, for this writer 
was there. Lowly life in Kentucky was lowly, 
elegant life was elegant, and I shall not try to describe 
cither further, but shall take the average of Kentucky 
home life, as I have seen it. The wedding occurred 
In Owen County, and before we leave it I will say 
that it was like no other county in the State in many 
respects. There were no real "rich" people In it, 
but the great mass of its population were good livers. 
For honesty and religion it had no superior. Our 
old circuit judge said that if all his district was like 
Owen County there would be little use of circuit 
courts. Start through the county any day In the 
week, you would be apt to see people going to church 
somewhere. According to its population, it had 
more Christians than almost any other county in the 
State, and It was peculiar in this that nine-tenths of 
the Christians were Baptists, and nearly the same 
proportion were Democrats. It belonged to the 
Ashland district, and General John C. Breckinridge, 
with whom I spent a good deal of time in the South 



128 Old Kentucky 

during the war, said to me that in his whole exper- 
ience he had never found a people who had more 
sterling integrity than the people of Owen County. 

Home-life in Kentucky in the best parts of the 
State was almost ideal, as it appears to me now 
after having mingled with people of nearly all the 
States. Everything that one could desire, Nature 
had provided. The home of the rich, in the coun- 
try, was not ostentatiously furnished, but seemed to 
be arranged for comfort. Those Virginia-Kentucky 
women were model housekeepers, and nowhere was 
cooking done to greater perfection. The following 
quotation from Mark Twain, who never exaggerates 
anything but always speaks sober truth, will give 
some idea of what is an outside impression concerning 
the mode of Kentucky living. I give it for what it 
is worth. And though It seems exaggerated in quan- 
tity, I endorse fully the quality. This was taken from 
The North American Review, and is headed 

MARK TWAIN ON SOUTHERN COOKING. 

It was a heavenly place for a boy, that farm of my Uncle 
John's. The house was a double log one, with a spacious 
floor (roofed in) connecting it with the kitchen. In the 
summer the table was set in the middle of that spacious and 
breezy floor, and the meals — well, it makes me cry to think 
of them. Fried chicken, roast pig, wild and tame turkeys, 
ducks and geese; venison just killed, squirrels, rabbits, 
pheasants, partridges, prairie chickens; biscuits, hot batter 
cakes, hot buck-wheat cakes, hot "wheat bread," hot rolls, 
hot corn pone ; fresh corn boiled on the ear, succotash, butter 
beans, string beans, tomatoes, peas, Irish potatoes, sweet po- 
tatoes; buttermilk, sweet milk, "clabber"; watermelons, 
muskmellons, cantaloupes — all fresh from the garden; apple 
pie, peach pie, pumpkin pie, apple dumpling, peach cobbler — 
I can't remember the rest. The way that the things were 
cooked was perhaps the main splendor — particularly a cer- 
tain few of the dishes. For instance, the corn bread, the 
hot biscuits and wheat bread, and the fried chicken. These 



Home-Life 129 

things have never been properly cooked in the North — in 
fact, no one there is able to learn the art, so far as my ex- 
perience goes. The North thinks it knows how to make 
corn bread, but this is gross superstition. Perhaps no bread 
in the world is quite as good as Southern corn bread, and 
perhaps no bread in the world is quite so bad as the North- 
ern imitation of it. The North seldom tries to fry chicken, 
and this is well ; the art cannot be learned north of the line 
of Mason and Dixon, nor any\vhere in Europe. This is not 
hearsay; it is experience that is speaking. 

Perhaps what food satisfies one depends largely 
upon taste and habit. Had Mark Twain been per- 
mitted to enjoy the evening meal, they called It 
dinner, at Sherry's in New York, a dinner given by 
the New England Society where four hundred of the 
most distinguished, wealthy New Englanders of New 
York met annually to celebrate, he would not have 
been so frank In expressing great admiration for 
Southern cooking. It was said that It took four 
thousand dollars to provide the supper, and how 
much was spent on other things was not estimated. 
I was an Invited guest, and our distinguished Ken- 
tucklan, Henry Watterson, made the principal 
address. It w^as a great occasion, and to an old 
Kentucklan who had spent a quarter of a century In 
the West, an occasion of great expectation. Many 
distinguished men were upon a high platform where 
they could be seen, and they certainly showed up to 
great advantage. Though it has been about ten 
years ago, the picture Is very vivid In my mind. On 
the platform, among other distinguished men was 
Ellhu Root, Chauncey Depew, I think, Plerpont 
Morgan I know was there, and Henry Watterson, 
sitting In the seat of honor, for he was to make the 
main address. All were seated by number. Finally 
the trouble began; an elaborate way-bill, called a 
9 



130 Old Kentucky 

"menu," was presented to each one, and if ever that 
way-bill has been read thoroughly by any one to this 
day, I have never heard of it. It was principally 
French, mongrel English and outlandish expressions. 
Without attempting to name the different articles, I 
will say that it seemed that they had swept the pools, 
the ponds, the swamps, and all strange places to get 
the materials for dinner. Never having tasted ter- 
rapin, I thought that when we came around to that, 
I certainly would be delighted. We had gone 
through with the frogs and different kinds of soups, 
and then cam.e the terrapin and canvas-back duck. I 
had eaten among the Indians, among the negroes, 
among white folks, and among the Dutch, but I never 
tasted anything like that terrapin. It seemed to be 
mixed up with little chips, and gristles, small bones, 
spices, flavoring extracts, sage, me, and hair-oil. I 
tackled it boldly — I had tried several other dishes and 
soups and failed, but the first mouthful of this dis- 
couraged me. I turned to the Hon. Norman B. 
Eaton, and said, "How do you like this?" And his 
answer fully concurred with my judgment; I then 
knew he was a wise man. It took till very late in 
the night to go through with the whole business, but 
I hung on with the hope of hearing Henry Watterson 
speak. And I would have liked to know what he 
thought of that elegant repast. But those old gentle- 
men certainly did enjoy themselves, and if I could 
have gathered up all the corks that were pulled there 
that night it would have made fishing corks enough 
for all the boys fishing in the Kentucky River. 

The Kentuckians must be a curious people, for they 
seem to have thrived on what many contend to be 
very unwholesome and deadly food. They ate 
everything that they wanted to; hot biscuits, ham, 
coffee, and other things that modern methods say 



Home-Life 131 

are deadly, and yet they used to grow six feet tall and 
more. What would they have grown to be if they 
had such breakfast-foods, and such inventions as the 
present age? Poor, ignorant people, they didn't 
know anything about Grape-nuts, Egg-o-See, Per-fo, 
Elijah's Manna, and such things. In Boston, once, 
a very bright little man, not more than five feet tall, 
no beard on his face, a little sharp-looking, kind man, 
said to me, "How is it Kentucky raises so many big 
men? Nearly all that T have seen are six feet tall." 
I did not quite explain the conditions, but remarked 
that I heard my father say that in early days they 
fed all the little men to the pigs and let the big ones 
grow. With a serious look up into my face he said, 
"I want to know." 

There was a great deal of visiting between Ken- 
tucky families. A quilt was esteemed much more 
highly if all the neighborhood women had a hand in 
making it, and the quilting was an enjoyable occasion, 
when all the news and opinions of the neighborhood 
could be had. The women then discussed the whole 
round of domestic life generally, and each one made 
known her methods in house-keeping, chicken-raising, 
soap-making, candle-dipping, sausage-seasoning, gar- 
dening, medicine, and all those wonderful things. 
Aunt Betsy, who raised sixteen children, told how 
she managed them ; Aunt Ellen told how she raised 
chickens; but poor Aunt Ursula, though she tried 
often to give her experience, never got farther than 
"My goose had — " And to this day I have never 
known what her goose had. 

The medical practice of that day was wonderful. 
Most of the medicine was raised in the garden — 
tansy, rue, rhubarb, confrey, sassafras, red pepper, 
garlic, and other things I do not remember. I should 
not have omitted, one little corner was always set 



132 Old Kenlucky 

apart for mint. Those various remedies were pre- 
pared and at hand if the children had any of the 
ordinary diseases; and the remedies were nearly 
always mixed in some way with honey and whiskey. 
But the bitter stuff, such as tansy, mixed with whis- 
key, which was forced on the children for worms, 
turned many people so against it that they could never 
use it aftenvard. 

The men thoroughly enjoyed log-rolling, horse- 
racing, shooting-matches, elections, house-raisings, 
hunting, and fishing. Every neighborhood had its 
little schoolhouse where for three or four months the 
children went to school or as many of them as could 
be spared. How I remember the first one in our 
neighborhood! It stood near the old meeting-house, 
surrounded by woods, near a sparkling spring. 
Wood and water were very essential, and the big 
boys could go out and bring in the wood, and the 
smaller ones and the girls could go to the spring and 
drink, and bring the teacher a gourd full of water. 
They all liked the privilege of performing these 
tasks. To prevent two scholars getting out together 
to play, a big card was hung at the door with "OUT" 
on one side and "IN" on the other side, so that those 
who could spell might indicate their absence or return 
by turning this sign. For the little fellows who 
could not spell there was a forked stick which might 
be taken out and returned when a little fellow went 
out or came in. Dear little log schoolhouse, with 
broad fire-place, benches of split ash or poplar, 
smoothed ofl and wooden pins put in for legs, so 
high my little feet could not touch the floor, with the 
little neighbor children gathered there learning their 
lessons from Webster's old spelling book — with the 
picture of the mastiff, of the milk-maid, and of the 
unjust judge deciding whose ox had been gored, and 



Home-Life 133 

of the boy in the apple tree — how you rise before me ! 
I must say, frankly, that early Kentuckians suffered 
greatly on account of their ignorance. They seemed 
to be more ignorant in regard to the treatment of 
serious diseases than anything else. In ordinary 
diseases of childhood the mothers seemed to know 
what to do; and it was a blessing, that healthy coun- 
try, that there were so few cases of severe sickness. 
The small-pox broke out in our section early in the 
forties, and the physicians did not know how to treat 
it. They put the patients in close, warm rooms, on 
feather-beds, and, as far as possible, excluded fresh 
air. As a result, many of the people died. One I 
remember, a great loss to his community, the Rev. 
William Ford, of Shelby County. There were very 
few cases of typhoid fever, but one I remember well. 
A small boy, about ten years old, was taken with a 
severe chill; he was put to bed and two physicians, 
the best known in that part of the country, v/ere 
summoned. They bled him freely, and the marks 
of the lance can be shown on his arms to-day; he 
was given calomel, wrapped up, and kept warm. 
And from the time he was taken sick, the latter part 
of February, till he began to recover, the first of June, 
he had not one drink of cool water, nor was he 
thoroughly bathed. He became a living skeleton, 
and had it not been, seemingly, for a special provi- 
dence, he would not be worrying you w^ith this fool- 
ishness to-day. 



CHAPTER VIII 

REMINISCENCES 

Home ! No word In the language awakens more 
tender recollections, except, perhaps, the word 
"mother." It was one of those words which means 
almost a whole lifetime. The man or woman who 
had a home in childhood and can throw off the tender 
memories that it brings is unnatural, unreliable, and 
will not make a good citizen. Of course some poor 
unfortunate creatures that have been raised in the 
slums, under the most unhappy influences, and have 
never known really what home means, are to be 
pitied and not blamed. The history of our criminals 
shows that a very large majority of them have never 
known the privilege of a good home in childhood. 
Not more than ten per cent, of the convicts in our 
prisons have had good Christian homes in childhood ; 
and really, when we sum up the total of our popula- 
tion, tracing each person through six generations, it 
is wonderful how few have become criminals, as each 
human being is the result of two columns that really 
run back through all the periods of the world's his- 
tory to Adam. The home is the first school that we 
attend, and the lessons we learn there are more last- 
ing and valuable than those learned in the highest 
colleges and universities. "Mother" was the first 
teacher, and it will be found that a very large per 
cent, of the thoroughly good and great men had good 
mothers. "Without good homes the church would 
have been a failure, and our country would never 
have attained greatness. A good home on earth is 
a type of heaven, and the good mothers "who have 



Reminiscences 135 

gone before" may be in large measure the guardian 
angels of those who are left. While our fathers 
have all honor for their stRiggles and manly efforts 
to support us and lead us aright, we owe vastly more 
to our patient, tolling, loving mothers. 

Last year there was a great home-coming of Ken- 
tuckians in Louisville, her queenly city. Noble men 
and women made pilgrimages from far off to come 
back to the old Kentucky home. According to the 
census reports, 600,000 native bom Kentuckians are 
living in other States and Territories of the Union. 
Many who came had gained great distinction and had 
risen to the highest positions of trust and responsi- 
bility, and yet when they were thrown together they 
were all plain Kentuckians. Everything was pro- 
vided for their comfort; and sentiments were uttered 
there that will go down the ages and result in great 
happiness. 

I want now tO' suggest another home-coming, where 
we can each go back to the old days and mingle with 
"the old folks at home." It will do us all good, 
make us better men and women. Were we to go 
back to these old places to-day they would not look 
like they did sixty years ago. But let us put away 
from our minds the changes that have taken place in 
sixty years or more, and look at things as they seemed 
to us then, and let us tell our children of our early 
lives and try to induce them to become men and 
women. I want to go back and see the old place 
once more; I will go to the old county where I was 
born, see the old homes and old faces, and look again 
at scenes that were very dear to me. 

In one neighborhood all my grandparents and 
nearly all their children were settled. Evei^ house 
was near a fine spring, and around them grew magnifi- 
cent forests. Such forests I have seen nowhere else 



136 Old Kentucky 

between ocean and ocean; magnificent poplars, which 
others call tulip trees, some of them two hundred 
feet tall and measuring nearly eighteen feet in circum- 
ference; immense black walnuts, that would make 
thousands of feet of lumber; ash, hickory, burr oak, 
hard maple, and almost every tree grown in the 
State. In some places the prevailing tree was the 
beech, and there were great beech forests. In those 
days there were trees standing with the marks on 
them made by the claws of bears, and grandfather has 
pointed out to me different trees where he had killed 
bears after he settled there. In order to get ground 
to cultivate, these magnificent forests had to be 
sacrificed tO' some extent. Every dwelling that I 
remember in the county was near a fine spring of 
water. I see the old house as I saw it when a child. 
The first house or cabin had been turned into a hen- 
house ; the house that was new when I was born was 
of hewed logs, two rooms; one large family room 
with white ash floor on which I never saw a carpet. 
Along one side of this was a shed-room and the rest 
was a porch. The upstairs of the house was all 
one room, where we boys slept, nothing between us 
and the sky but the shingles — and we were well and 
happy. Adjoining this house was a kitchen, and 
there was a hall between. This house was regarded 
as very comfortable. Afterwards there was a frame 
addition put on, which always seemed to me tO' spoil 
the old house. For a long time there was not a 
stove in the house; but the immense fireplace was 
a constant joy and a great deal of trouble to keep 
going in cold weather. 

I look out on the north over the magnificent 
forests stretching to my grandfather's farm, and for 
nearly a mile northeast to the Old Indian Fork meet- 
ing-house. Grandfather owned all this land, and 



Reminiscences 137 

had enough to divide and give homes to a large 
family of children. We always had good gardens, 
abundance of milk and butter, and poultry. The 
hogs could nearly live on the mast in the forest, and 
the cattle on the range outside. Nearly every home 
had its bees, and when the family desired more honey 
they could go out in the woods and cut down a bee- 
tree. It was a veritable land of milk and honey. 
Then there were the old spring-houses, built up of 
stone, with water running through down into a basin, 
in which were set the milk and butter, always cool 
and fresh. Nearly every one had what was termed 
"a sugar camp," where they made sugar and rich 
syrup from the maple. What more was to be 
desired than these old-time people had? 

Yet their lives were full of toil. To clear off 
those forests, and cultivate the crops, required the 
strongest efforts of manhood. The women carded 
the wool and flax, spun and wove clothes for wearing 
apparel, and blankets and sheets for the beds. The 
old Kentuckians would always have good feather- 
beds, on which they slept summer and winter. It 
was difl'icult to get shoes, and one pair a year was 
about all we boys expected. They had to tan the 
hides and make the shoes at home; and such shoes 
as they were ! But we were very proud of them. 
The lasts were imperfect, and it was a wonder, with 
the fits that we had, that we ever had feet we could 
walk on. Even to-day, when pulling on the com- 
fortable "American Gentleman" shoe, I think of 
the things old Uncle Abe, the negro shoemaker, 
used to make; but we knew no better in those days; 
we thought we had the best. 

The day was put in by all of us at work; there 
were no drones; if one was able to work one was 
expected to do so, from early morning until the sun 



138 Old Kentucky 

went down — and then the feeding and such things 
had to be done. We went out in the morning to plow, 
barefooted, and in the dew, and often had to stop 
to take the mud from between our toes. And how 
all hands watched the sun to know when twelve 
o'clock came; and when the horn sounded we went 
to the house and ate such a dinner as I cannot find 
to-day, which, if we believe all that the present-day 
advocates of patent-right cooking teach us, certainly 
would have killed us. There is a great deal of non- 
sense put forth in this age in treating of dietetics. We 
ate what we wanted, when we wanted it, and as much 
as we wanted, and there were very few boys in our 
section who' did not grow up six feet tall, rugged, 
hardy, splendid men, and girls into beautiful women. 
I scarcely ever was awake long enough to see patient, 
industrious, loving mother retire. She was working 
to provide for us, and was always kind and cheerful. 
I do not remember that she ever struck me a blow 
in anger; but how she punished me when I did 
wrong — she would take me off by myself and pray 
with me, and try to instill into my very soul the prin- 
ciples of a beautiful Christian life. And before I 
was thirteen years old I was led to Christ, and never, 
from that day to this, have I ever purposely done 
anything to dishonor my profession. 

Mother — home — what sweet memories come to 
me when I think of them ! 

The first death that I remember well was of a 
half-brother of mine. I stayed by his bed almost 
constantly day and night for nearly a week, and when 
the end came my very soul seemed to go out with his 
life. I stood by the grave in the old family burying- 
ground, and the love I had for that boy has never 
diminished, and it comes to me as a sad, sweet 
memory to-day. 



Reminiscences 139 

I have no doubt, even after all these years, that if 
you would put a stake between Christiansburg and 
Shelbyville, and draw a circuit with a diameter six 
miles long, that you would enclose in it a population 
of as true and noble a people as ever lived on earth. 
Nearly all the families were attached to some church. 
What a noble band gathered at the old Mulberr>^ 
meeting-house where the Presbyterians worshiped ! 
Those Presbyterians were of the right stripe — noble, 
good people. At a time there was a ver}^ small 
Methodist church in Christiansburg; and I think, 
according to numbers, I never saw a more earnest 
people. I would go a long way to-day, w^ere it 
possible, to see old Father Messick, in the fullness of 
Christian feeling, kneel down, put up his hands, and 
shout glory to his God, The Baptists were the pre- 
vailing denomination in all that section of country; 
and in this circle would be found "Six Mile." 
Though it was located in Christiansburg, it was 
called "Six Mile," I presume, because there was the 
spring from which Six Mile started. The Baptists 
had awkward ways of naming their churches. They 
liked to name them from some stream, as Benson, 
Fox Run, Elk Horn, and others. In this circle, in 
addition to those churches named, would be found 
Indian Fork and Buffalo Lick. The former was 
located where the Indians, when making their raids, 
separated; the latter where the buffaloes came to 
lick salt. None of these names would indicate any- 
thing very appropriate for church names, but could 
I give the names of many of the families belonging to 
these churches they would show the origin, and in 
some cases the nationality. 

Not to drag into publicity the families of other 
people, I will use my own as an example. My 
mother's name was Bondurant — of course this is 



140 Old Kentucky 

Huguenot; and her father was a Flood, an Irishman, 
My paternal grandfather was English, and his wife, 
my grandmother, was a Jones, a Welsh family — all 
from Virginia families that we have never been 
ashamed of. By inter-marriage, within two or 
three generations we became kin to everybody; and 
there never was, that I can find, a war or any 
honorable conflict that we were not in it. They were 
not "broilers" and fighters at home, but peaceful, 
Christian people; but when it became necessary in 
defense of any principle or right the old rifles were 
taken from over the door, and they used them well. 
I always kept away from anger if I could, and the 
only time I ever spent In watching war and other 
people fight was from '60 to '65, when I was in the 
South. 

But my mind turns back to the old home; and I 
want to go once more to the old church where my 
grandfather ministered for fifty years. He preached 
nearly every Sunday, and a great part of the time was 
pastor of four churches, which I think he organized. 
Indian Fork was his home church and where I first 
Avent to Sunday-school, a bare-footed lad with every 
rag I had on me made by mother at home. The 
Sunday-schools were not up to the modern style; they 
did not have modern appliances. We had no Sun- 
day-school picnics or entertainments; those poor ig- 
norant people thought that If they would Instill Into 
our minds freely and thoroughly the doctrines of the 
New Testament, have us commit as much as pos- 
sible — sometimes nearly a whole book — and explain 
them to us, pray It Into us as far as they could, and 
have us commit to memory many of the old-fashioned 
gospel songs, that they had done a pretty good work. 
And I don't see in these days that anything better is 
done. Many whole chapters of the Testament 



Reminiscences 14 ' 

learned then, and very many of those good old 
songs have clung to us from that day to this, and 
come more readily to us than things we have learned 
in the last decade or so. They usually met on one 
Saturday of each month to settle the affairs of the 
church, see that the fellowship was all right, and had 
anything occurred between the members the first 
thing to do was to reconcile them if possible; they 
nearly always succeeded. One of the worst quarrels 
I remember was where two hard-headed brothers got 
into a difficulty over a crossed fence. They were men 
in advanced life, too, but became highly enraged. 
One called the other "a contaminated liar," the other 
threw an axe at him. The quarrel was brought before 
the church for settlement; and after the facts were 
stated one older brother rose and said, "I want to 
ask both of these brethren a question."^ Then he 
asked the one what he meant by "contaminated liar" 
—if it was for the glory of God? The man replied 
that he was not sure, but he knew that if he just 
called him a liar there would be trouble and he 
thought he would qualify it. Then the old brother 
asked the other man if he flung the axe for the glory 
of God? He replied that, now that he thought 
about it, he wasn't sure. One old brother then said, 
"Brethren, let us pray." They had a season of 
earnest, tender prayer, and when it was oyer the one 
w^ho had called the other a name said with tears in 
his eyes, "I'm monstrous sorry, but I got mad and 
forgot myself." He had not more than uttered this 
when the other came fonvard and said, "I was to 
blame in the whole business ; I was too hast>'." They 
shook hands and cried, and the thing was settled for- 
ever. Was that a bad way to settle the trouble? 
Those "poor, ignorant old fellows" did not know any 



142 Old Kentucky 

better way than that. It is a pity there is not more 
such "ignorance" ! 

Sunday morning, the regular preaching day, was a 
great day. Old Indian Fork stood there on historic 
ground, where the Indian trail forked. Great 
forests were around it, and there was the grave-yard; 
for every church had its grave-yard. As it looked 
then it would have made a beautiful picture. By ten 
o'clock the people began to come. A great many 
came on horseback, the young men riding nice sleek 
horses. It was a disgrace not to have a good horse. 
The young ladies, who prided themselves upon their 
equipment, came up from every direction, and many 
of them had come for miles; they were beautiful 
riders, and I now think of them as cultured, elegant 
people. There were several stiles around the fence, 
and, the young ladies having dismounted, while their 
escorts went to care for and tie up the horses under 
the shade of the trees they primped themselves and 
made ready, and then marched in to church, looking 
as pretty and fresh as a summer morning. A large 
number of the older people rode horseback, some 
came in wagons; and those within a mile or two 
would walk, they preferred it; often they would 
walk three miles to church. When the congregation 
was about assembled the old leaders would begin a 
song, and perhaps out of a congregation of three 
hundred ninety per cent, would sing, young and old. 
They sang by note, and their voices could be heard 
a long distance, with every part being carried. Old 
Uncle Dick Dodson for many years acted as choir- 
master. He would begin to pat his feet and an- 
nounce his hymn, which was likely to be for the first, 
"Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound"; next, per- 
haps, "Am I a soldier of the cross?" and then, "How 
firm a foundation. Ye Saints of the Lord!" By the 



Reminiscences 143 

time these songs were sung the hearts and minds went 
out to Hea\en, and they sang a song that I cannot 
find in any pubhshed hymn-books of this day; it was 
the last hymn before the preaching commenced. 

"When for eternal worlds we steer, 
And seas are calm and skies are clear, 
And hope in liveb' exercise. 
And distant hills of Canaan rise. 
The soul for joy then spreads her wings 
And loud her heavenly sonnet sings — 
I'm going home." 

Omitting the rest of it, we come to the last stanza, 
which always seemed beautiful to me: 

"The nearer still she draws to land, 
The more her ardent powers expand ; 
With steady helm, and full-spread sail, 
Her anchor drops within the vale. 
And then for joy she folds her wings. 
And soft her heavenly sonnet sings — 
I'm safe at home." 

The people were now ready to receive the gospel, 
and the faithful old minister, six feet tall, with a 
pleasant smile on his face, announced his text, per- 
haps such a text as this — "We know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God, to 
them that are the called according to his purpose." 

He didn't commence by telling us about the higher 
criticism, or what the learned men had said; he 
didn't know anything about such things and he cared 
less. He had studied the whole Bible through nearly 
twenty times from beginning to end, and didn't need 
a concordance. He believed ever>^ word of it. He 
told his people about the great God that had purposed 
and had created them; he told them of God's love 
for a fallen race; he told them that in Jesus Christ 
God had given evidence that everything his children 
needed would be supplied to them, that when he had 
given the greater gifts his hand would withhold no 



144 ^^d Kentucky 

good thing from his children; he appealed to them 
to love and serve the good Father who was preparing 
a home for them. Usually he would preach to them 
for two hours, instructing and exhorting them in the 
most tender way. And his people knew he meant 
and believed every word he said, and that his love 
for them was a tender love as of a shepherd for his 
flock. In all his life he never accepted one dollar as 
remuneration for any service he could render them. 
He taught them that it was their duty to support the 
gospel, but as he was better off, perhaps, than any 
member of the church, he did not need and he would 
accept nothing. 

Kentucky owes more to the old pioneer ministers 
who helped fight her foes, who defended their 
families, and lived as any other citizens; who cared 
for them in sickness and in trouble, and by example 
and teaching led them to a higher life, and taught 
them by every means to be unselfish, than can be 
easily realized. Perhaps I might say here that the 
old dear Christian women of the State had more to 
do in the formation of character than everybody else. 
Blessed and sacred be their memories! 

While the men who have accomplished great 
results are known in history, the names of the women 
who deserve equal credit have not been recorded, for 
their lives were more of heroic, patient home sacri- 
fice than of public activities. For the same reason, 
many of the most useful and able men of Kentucky 
have not been known to history; yet they had vei-y 
much to do in shaping the destiny of the State. In the 
convention that formed the Constitution of the State 
there were six ministers of the Gospel, and when the 
vote was taken upon the pro-slavery clause every one 
voted against it. The persecutions that they and 
their fathers had endured because of the connection 



Reminiscences 145 

of church and state made them very careful to see 
that no such thing could prevail in Kentucky. It 
was a law in Kentucky for a long time, if it is not 
even now, that no minister of the Gospel could hold 
public office. The Constitution made by these men 
has long since ceased to be binding in many respects, 
but the many principles they taught have never failed 
to have influence in the State. Tt gave absolute 
religious freedom, placing all religious bodies on an 
equal footing; it forbade commerce in slaves, and 
made provision for their emancipation by law when 
desired; it secured freedom of the press; it gave 
freemen, regardless of property qualification, a free 
ballot; it made the people the sovereigns. As a 
class, the early ministers of the State were a remark- 
able body of men; God knew that common, inferior 
men could not do the work required for the establish- 
ment of Christianity in the State. Many of them 
were men of splendid judgment, great common sense, 
and with tender human sympathies and cheerful dis- 
position. They did not draw long solemn faces; they 
were cheerful and enjoyed jokes and wit, and many 
of their expressions became every-day proverbs. 
On one occasion a young man who had a little 
smattering of learning came to preach for my old 
grandfather. They went up into the great high 
pulpit, and the young man was put up to try whether 
he could preach or not. He took for his text, "Now 
abideth faith, hope, and charity." He started out 
pretty well, dividing his subject into three heads, and 
started on Faith. But before he got through with 
faith he lost himself, and turned back to his coat 
that was hanging on the back of a chair, and com- 
menced to read a little essay upon hope and charit}'. 
Never before had that congregation seen a paper 



146 Old Kentucky 

drawn out to help a man preach. He finally 
stumbled, halted, and quit. Whereupon, the old 
preacher rose and said, "Brethren, I had not 
expected to say anything on this occasion, but as 
the young brother has exhibited nothing, I feel called 
upon to say something." All over that part of the 
counti-y afterward, when anything had not come up 
to standard, and didn't "exhibit" anything, the saying 
was, "It is like the young preacher." 

A great many things were told as jokes on the 
preachers that had no foundation or truth — one that 
has been repeated in many States. I heard a very 
clever man in St. Louis tell it as a fact, and it was 
used with great effect at the anecdote club. It was 
this. 

It was known that an old preacher was going to 
preach the next Sunday on the flood, and some mis- 
chievous person so pasted the leaves of his Bible as to 
break the connection, and just at the bottom of 
the page he read, "And Noah took unto himself a 
wife" — then he turned to the top of the page and 
began the description of the ark — "three hundred 
cubits long, fifty cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits 
in height; pitched inside and out with tar." The 
old man turned back and read it the second time, 
thinking he had made a mistake ; finding apparently, 
that he had not, he finally said, "Brethren, I would 
not have believed it had it not occurred in the word 
of God." 

But the following, I think is literally a true story. 

There was one old preacher who usually preached 
about the same sermon, whatever text he took. A 
young deacon, who thought he was smart, told the 
old preacher that if he would take a text and preach 
a sermon suitable to it or growing out of it, he would 
give him a twenty-dollar gold-piece. It was under- 



Reminiscences 147 

stood that at the next monthly meeting the test was 
to be made, and the older deacons were to be a com- 
mittee to judge. The old preacher took his text, 
which is found in Romans, "Much every way." It 
was Paul's answer to the question, "What advantage 
hath a Jew?" The old preacher performed his duty, 
came down, and the committee decided that he was 
honestly entitled to the money; for his text was 
"much every^ way," and he had preached for two 
hours and in every sort of fashion. They enjoyed 
such jokes, and would often tell things on each other. 

An old negro preacher preaching on Noah's ark 
related what a big thing it was, and he then told how 
his old "Marster" in Virginia had undertaken to 
build a barn to hold all his stock and grain. And he 
said, "Brethren, old Marster built a barn three hun- 
dred feet long, three hundred feet high — " Then 
an old brother exclaimed, "Stop, brother!" But be- 
fore he could shut oft his words, the preacher 
added — "and three feet wide." The preacher re- 
torted upon the brother who had interrupted him, 
and said, "Brother, if you had let me alone I would 
have widened that barn." 

It was a regular picnic to us youngsters to have 
the preachers come to visit, for we knew there was 
going to be plenty to eat and the very best; there 
would be discussions and explanations of parts of 
the Bible; and many witty jokes in which they were 
always careful to say nothing that a child or a woman 
might not hear. They were clean, excellent, loving 
men, capable of instructing and leading the youth; 
and under their influence the Christian religion al- 
most swept the State. 

Nothing comes to my memory more pleasantly 
than a trip from Louisville to Frankfort on one of 
the beautiful little boats that came up that river. 



148 Old Kentucky 

Louisville, sixty years ago, was a beautiful little city 
in which could be found many of the most noble and 
cultured people. The boat that I remember best was 
named The Dove. It started out in the evening and 
went on up the Ohio, then at Carrollton it turned, 
and went up the Kentucky River, which to me is one 
of the most beautiful rivers in the world. The far- 
ther we went the higher the bluffs became. There 
were nice farms along the way, and the river, at 
that time, had locks and dams. How gracefully the 
little boat would go into the locks and rise with the 
water as It was let In, and be ready, when It reached 
the level, to pursue Its way. I can see it now making 
its way around up to the old wooden bridge that con- 
nected Frankfort with South Frankfort, and when 
she went above the bridge we had to lower her smoke- 
stacks. That old wooden bridge which I have 
crossed hundreds of times, what a faithful old high- 
way! 

Frankfort was always to me one of the most 
charming places In Kentucky, and it has always 
grieved me to hear of any effort being made to re- 
move the capitol from It. I spent nearly two years 
In that town, and I remember the people as an ele- 
gant, hospitable class, almost entirely thoroughbred 
Virginia-Kentuckians. I have seen the greater part 
of the beautiful Rocky Mountains, the grandeur of 
which none can describe; but no scenery has ever 
impressed me as the scenery around Frankfort. 
There was scarcely anything In South Frankfort 
then. I can remember only one first-class home there, 
and that stood just fronting the entrance to the old 
bridge. Now South Frankfort is full of attractions, 
and I learn that the new capitol Is to be built there. 
A favorite resort with me was the old cemetery where 
many of their noble dead rest in peace. 



Reminiscences 149 

From the time that I can remember, Lexington 
was a most attractive place. It seemed that the 
people had brought the art of living well almost up 
to perfection, not only in the town, but also in the 
surrounding country. And there is no use for me 
to try to tell anybody about the conditions and at- 
tractions of that town and its surroundings. Lexing- 
ton is known all through the country as a place that 
has no superior, if it has an equal, everything consid- 
ered. 

Outside of my own county there Is no place in the 
State that has so many sacred memories to me as 
Georgetown. It was there that I attended college 
for three years, from ^^^ to '58, and by common 
consent, I think, it is agreed that no other years in 
the history of that college had a better class of stu- 
dents. And though I have spent half the days of 
my life in college work, I do not think that I ever 
saw a school that was more faithful in instructing 
and guiding its students. Dr. Campbell was a 
model college president, a highly educated, cultured 
gentleman. He was to me not only a faithful guide 
and instructor, but he drew me close to him with al- 
most the feeling of a son to his father. Professor 
Farnham was almost a walking library, and an un- 
assuming Christian gentleman. His instruction in 
science and higher mathematics has had much to do 
in shaping my life. Professor Thomas was the most 
patient teacher in Greek and Latin that I ever saw. 
Both Professor Farnham and Professor Thomas 
were natives of Maine, and I question if the State 
ever turned out two better men. Dr. N. M. Craw- 
ford, son of the distinguished William H. Crawford 
of Georgia, was my teacher in Hebrew. He was 
one of the most dignified, cultured, genial, approach- 
able men that I have ever known. It is not simply 



150 Old Kentucky 

the admiration of a boy for these great men that I 
now record, but it is the dehberate judgment formed 
in mature age. All these have passed over after 
long lives of great usefulness. One who is fresh in 
my memory still lives — Prof. J. J. Rucker, who' has 
been at his post for half a century; and there are 
multitudes who hold him in great affection. 

The class of '58 was composed of twenty-one 
graduates, and was considered one of the best classes 
the college ever had. These graduates were princi- 
pally from Kentucky, Virginia, and the other South- 
ern States, and many of them gave up their lives in 
the civil war. Two became prominent judges rn the 
State — Richard Reed and Quincy Ward. Reed died 
a tragic death. I have not seen or heard from Ward 
for many years. In that class was Dr. George Var- 
den, who became very prominent as a linguist, but I 
do not know whether he is living to-day or not. One 
fellow-classman that I have constantly kept in touch 
with, for we have lived in the same State for more 
than a quarter of a century, is, all things considered, 
perhaps the best man in the class. He is a very 
prominent lawyer in Kansas City. He served with 
distinction as Minister to Switzerland. He is a dis- 
tinguished man, and Is honored by all who know him. 
His name is John L. Peak. 

For some reason Georgetown has been made the 
town in which many of the most celebrated cases in 
Kentucky were tried. One that impressed me most 
occurred in '57. An old gentleman of Scott County, 
who left a fine estate, made a will and gave to a 
daughter, in addition to her portion, an old negro 
woman valued at not more than $100. The other 
heirs, for some reason, felt that this was discrimina- 
tion and brought suit. It had been tried in various 
courts for seven years, until feeling ran high and the 



Reminiscences 151 

costs amounted to nearly $8,000. By agreement it 
was finally tried in the Georgetown court, and all 
were to abide by the decision. The lawyers were the 
most distinguished. They were John C. Breckin- 
ridge, James F. Robinson, Garret Davis, Thomas 
Lindsay, and Robert Wolley. Itjvyas a battle of 
giants. Garret Davis spoke as long as he could stand, 
and then sat down on a table and finished his speech. 
James F. Robinson, "the Old Roman," made a most 
impressive appeal. I see him now standing up be- 
fore the jury, holding his palsied hand with the 
other, as he commenced, after addressing the court 
and jury: 

"It has always been a sacred principle that a man 
has the right to dispose of whatever he has acquired 
as he may desire. The old patriarch, when he saw 
death coming to him, called his children to him and 
gave instructions to each one as to what his will 
should be. And finally he gave instructions as to 
what to do with his bones when he should be dead. 
He wanted them carried back to his old home." 

He made a wonderful appeal. 

Robert Willey commenced with a wonderful de- 
scription of the Trojan war, which he said lasted 
seven years, as long as this trial had lasted; and he 
made a most beautiful address. 

John C. Breckinridge was in the prime of his early 
manhood; and I have never seen a jury swayed as 
he swayed that jury. My recollection is that he won 
his case. 

The social life around Georgetown was almost per- 
fect. Many of the finest families in the State lived 
there. 

There is one thing that a boy who lived in Ken- 
tucky can never forget. I refer to the elections, that 
were held three days, commencing Monday and clos- 



152 Old Kentucky 

ing Wednesday. Why it required three days to take 
the meager vote that was cast I never could under- 
stand. Usually very little was done the first day; 
but Tuesday morning things began to wax warm. 
Nearly all of the people were politicians, and excite- 
ment in general elections usually ran high. In all of 
the districts there were some voters who were poor 
and ignorant, and the question was how to control 
these votes. It was not unusual to form what they 
called "bull-pens" away in the hills, down on some 
stream, where they gathered together as many ig- 
norant voters as they could, both parties practicing 
the same scheme, and kept them there, giving them 
everything to eat and drink ; and many of them were 
kept drunk until the election was over, and did not 
vote at all. I am sorry to report this, but I want 
to give every side of Kentucky life. And I cannot 
deny that by Wednesday evening things were red- 
hot, and many fights occurred among the common 
class, but I do not remember a single case where a 
man was killed. Their actions grew out of the ex- 
citement, and after it was all over, good-will re- 
mained. What times the elections were for us boys ! 
They were held beginning the first Monday in Au- 
gust. The watermelons were getting ripe, and the 
good old negroes were pemiitted to have their ginger- 
cakes and cider to sell, and usually got all the spare 
change the boys had. 

The Kentuckians were a fun-loving people, and 
always liked, in some way, to have a contest in their 
fun. Shooting-matches were common, and were al- 
ways conducted on gentlemanly principles. They 
usually shot for turkeys, but sometimes they shot for 
quarters of beef, the best shots getting the best quar- 
ters, the poorer shots taking the fore-quarters. 

They were fond, too, of barbecues, but there al- 



Reminiscences 153 

ways had to be some contest to show feats of man- 
hood or skill with the rifle. One of the most re- 
markable barbecues that I remember was a contest 
in killing crows and hawks, which abounded in that 
wooded country as perhaps in no other, and were de- 
structive to the chickens. They decided as far as 
possible to exterminate them in that section, and the 
section was divided off by a line running through. 
One side was arrayed against the other side as to 
who would procure the most scalps. They hunted 
diligently, and it was even considered fair if a party 
from one side could steal a scalp from a party on the 
other side. Everything was considered fair in 
what was termed "The Crow War." An immense 
barbecue was prepared, and it was understood that 
the side which produced the most scalps could eat 
first and the others were to wait on them. Joyous 
excitement ran high, and perhaps it would be no ex- 
aggeration to say that there were ten barrels of 
scalps brought in, counted, and destroyed. 

As I have said before, in everything there was a 
patriotic spirit. Great honor and respect were 
shown to the old men who had been soldiers. I re- 
member the impression made on me, which was both 
serious and ridiculous, in the honor that was paid to 
a very old citizen, an old Revolutionary soldier. 
After the Revolution he had settled in rather a hilly 
part of the country, as many of those old Virginians 
did, as there was good water there and a large forest 
around them. He was patriotic and loved the old 
flag, and when he was between seventy and eighty 
he would have been ready to shoulder his musket in 
defence of his country. He had the respect of every- 
body, but in some ways he was a man of bitter spirit 
and very tenacious of his own opinions. When he 
died the whole people thought that they ought to 



154 Old Kentucky 

give him a burial befitting such a character. Some 
people, before his death, thought he was rather stren- 
uous in his opinions, as I have said. He was an ar- 
dent Democrat, and believed that a Whig was a 
Tory, and he had no patience with anything that 
looked toward toryism. But when he died every- 
body said that Uncle Meshack Pierson ought to have 
a good funeral, and that everybody should contribute 
a part to it. He lived two or three miles from the 
old Indian Fork Church, and a great multitude, 
some on foot, some in wagons, some on horseback, 
and some in ox-carts, met at his house to escort the 
remains to the church. One man on horseback with 
a red sash around him rode in front. The body was 
brought in a wagon; fifteen men on horseback rode 
on either side of the wagon, and had their firearms, 
which it seemed to me they carried up-side down; 
one man rode up in the wagon with the coffin and 
carried a United States flag. In front were two men 
playing on fifes, and two beating on drums. And it 
was the most mournful music that I had ever heard; 
the fifes seemed to be crying and the muffled drums 
to be laboring to give expression to their sorrow. 
They came slowly on, and finally reached the 
church — a lonesome building in the midst of heavy 
forests, and in the yard the largest weeping-willows, 
the prettiest and most solemn that I had ever seen. 
I had never seen a grave, and it looked like an awful 
place to put anybody into. The people gathered 
round it, and they laid two poles across it, and on 
these poles the cofllin, which was really a wooden box 
covered with lamp-black. One rather large man, in 
passing around, fell in or partly in. There seemed 
to be something the matter with his head; but he 
was pulled out, and the service proceeded. My old 
grandfather, as minister, stood at the head of the 



Reminiscences 1 5 5 

grave, and he looked very solemn, so much so that 
I was afraid he was sick. He was usually very cheer- 
ful and bright, and the prayer that he offered was so 
different from what it would have been had he been 
at the creek ready to baptize a lot of people. The 
people stood with their hats off and a good many of 
them were crying, and out of sympathy, mother said, 
I bawled too. I think this must have happened after 
the salute was fired, and I was scared. When the 
coflin was lowered a great many people threw some 
green into the grave, which of course I did not under- 
stand. The men with the guns then stood around, 
and all fired at once, and it was the greatest sound I 
had ever heard from guns fired by a grave. They 
stood around a few minutes, and everybody tried to 
think of something good to say of the departed. The 
men fired again, and fifes and drums starting up, the 
procession formed and passed out of sight and we all 
went home. I have never enjoyed a funeral so much 
since. 

THE LAND OF LONG AGO 

"Across the wid'ning waste we hear 

Bird songs that greet the morn, 
Where shineth through the rosy mist 

The land where we were born; 
Oh, lightly from its far-off hills 

The W^inds of Memory blow. 
It is our own, our native land — 

The Land of Long Ago. 

"There, stretching out beneath the sun. 

Lie meadows bright and fair; 
On rugged slopes the berry vines 

Run riot everywhere; 
And climbing up the tinted cliff, 

Where Wonder flowers grow, 
Laugh children that we played with in 

The Land of Long Ago. 



156 Old Kentucky 

"Blow soft; blow soft! across the waste, 

O Winds of Memory! 
And set atune Aeolian chords 

Wherein our heartstrings be — 
And croon for us from happy hours 

The music sweet and low, 
The old-time airs, the lullabies, 

The songs of Long Ago! 

"But hush ! a funeral note steals in 

And skies are turning gray; 

For us no more shall golden dawn 

Unfold to perfect day; 
We sail beyond the sea and sky — 

A way that none may know, 
O happy shore! good-b^^e! good-bye! — 
Our Land of Long Ago!" 

—Sheifey. 



CHAPTER IX 

Kentucky's pride in her men 

I am puzzled to know what to say of the men that 
Kentucky has given to the world. There are so many 
of them and they have attained such high positions 
that it seems to be impossible to do anything like jus- 
tice in speaking of them and their achievements. In 
the first place the number of these can scarcely be es- 
timated, and to undertake to call them by name would 
be impossible, and perhaps some of the most worthy 
may not be mentioned. 

The same thought occurs to me here as it has 
again and again, that the great, guiding hand of 
Providence has had much to do in all the affairs of 
men. There are no accidents with God. He formed 
his plans in wisdom and he himself selected the va- 
rious instrumentalities to accomplish them. It can- 
not be denied that many of these plans have not been 
in the beginning seemingly important, but the results 
were wonderful, and largely contributed to advance 
all that has been good in the world. When He 
wanted a successor to King Saul He did not go 
among the great captains of Israel; He selected a 
little shepherd boy to put at the head of the nation. 
Who would have thought, from the human stand- 
point, that Cromwell would have been selected to 
bring great glory to the English people? Who has 
been able to understand why an Insignificant peasant 
girl, Joan of Arc, should have been called to accom- 
plish such seemingly Impossible things, and have such 
Influence over nations? Why were "Ignorant fisher- 
men" selected as the great apostles of Christianity? 



158 Old Ken lucky 

Martin Luther was a peasant's son. He was cruelly 
treated in his childhood, and beaten for frivolous 
things until his back was bloody. God knew why 
He wanted Martin Luther; the world sees the re- 
sults. Of the man to carry through the war of 
American independence there was no question. The 
man was chosen, the only man living, perhaps, that 
could have done what he did, and went down, after 
one of the most heroic events in the history of man- 
kind, as the Father of his Country. George Wash- 
ington was ordained to the work that he had to do, 
and he did it, constantly trusting in the Higher 
Power. Let us not forget that in all these results 
the glory must be given to one higher than we. 

Who can tell why the honor was given to Ken- 
tucky of being the home of men whose names will 
go down in history? And when I speak of Ken- 
tucky in this connection, I want it distinctly under- 
stood that Kentucky in her history and achievements 
cannot be separated from her old mother Virginia ; 
the glory of the one is the glory of the other. There 
had to be a great question settled in this country, and 
every kind of compromise, it seemed, that could be 
thought of was suggested. But war had to settle 
two questions — the question of slavery and the ques- 
tion as to whether all these States were bound to- 
gether by a rope of sand or whether they were bound 
in an indissoluble Union. A poor boy, born in pov- 
erty, raised in poverty, without means for an educa- 
tion, seemingly with nO' great destiny in the world, 
was called to the great and seemingly impossible task 
of leading the nation to the final settlement of these 
questions. Abraham Lincoln was no more to be 
compared, so far as human thought could go, with 
the other great statesmen of this country than Peter 
the fisherman was to be compared to the great high 



Kentucky's Pride hi Her Men 159 

priests of the Jews or to CjEsar on his throne, and 
yet there is no question that Lincohi was the man and 
the only man that could have accomplished the re- 
sults. And when his work was done, as God saw it, 
though we have never understood it, by a cruel hand 
he gave up his life. Abraham Lincoln was never 
understood, and to-day thoughtful men wonder at 
the peculiarities, the power, and the influence and 
nobility of that sad life. On the other side, the 
leader had to be selected to perform his part in the 
destiny of mankind; and whatever may be said of 
the man or the cause, Jefferson Davis was a remark- 
able personality. And from all the great men of the 
South, God called him from Kentucky ; he was born 
and reared not very far from where Abraham Lin- 
coln was born and reared. Jefferson Davis was a 
brave, able, forceful man, and doubtless as consci- 
entious in his convictions as was Lincoln. There had 
to be a leader chosen to open the war in the South- 
west, and to begin the most bloody battle that, up 
to that time, had ever been fought upon the conti- 
nent — the battle of Shiloh. Albert Sidney Johnston, 
the son of a distinguished family in Kentucky, was 
put at the head of that army. How well I remember 
him and how he looked ! I can see him now as he 
stood in Nashville before he took charge of the 
aiTny. A great, strong, serious, honest-looking man. 
He spoke in slow, measured terms as he made a 
short address. He looked sad, serious, and I can't 
help thinking that he understood, better than any 
of the rest did, the seriousness and sadness of his un- 
dertaking. 

Who that knew John C. Breckinridge did not ad- 
mire him? To me to-day, of all the Kentuckians I 
have known, he is the ideal Kentuckian. He was a 
handsome man ; as was remarked once, it seemed that 



i6o Old Kentucky 

when Nature had made him she broke the mould, 
for no other man looked like John C. Breckinridge. 
I may say from a long and intimate acquaintance 
with him, extending before the war, I never saw a 
weakness in him. He was full of magnetism, and 
seemed able to sway men at will. I have heard him 
at the bar, when he was pitted against some of the 
best brains of Kentucky, and he was a master among 
men; I have seen him sway the multitudes in his 
political addresses; I have seen him in the height 
of his power and glory; I have seen him in social 
life; and he always was the same. Few men ever 
made greater sacrifices for convictions than John C. 
Breckinridge. Many of his friends felt, and he felt, 
that had he taken the other side he would have 
reached the highest gift of the nation. I think he 
really never saw a happy day after the war com- 
menced. When he was at camp in Byrnesville, Mis- 
sissippi, before the battle of Shiloh, with his Ken- 
tucky boys around him, he, more than any other, 
realized what was before them, and I think he suf- 
fered as much for others as he did for himself. One 
evening I was at headquarters; we had been talking 
until late, and all the camp was still, there was 
scarcely a sound heard that would indicate that an 
army lay there. Unexpectedly the band struck up 
"My Old Kentucky Home," and it seemed a sur- 
prise to all. I looked at the General and saw great 
tears streaming from his eyes, for he loved his old 
Kentucky home. Silently each one of us retired to 
his own place, and there was not a word spoken be- 
tween us that night. The battle soon came on, and 
there are doubtless now some left in Kentucky who 
remember Breckinridge's solicitude for his Ken- 
tucky boys. Among the mortally wounded was a 
handsome Shelby County boy, Willie Farmer, who 



Kentucky's Pride in I let- Men i6i 

was scarcely grown. His thigh was shattered; he 
was laid upon a cot in Corinth in the great room 
where the wounded were placed, and where, every 
day, soldiers were dying; he was so badly wounded 
that the physicians said nothing could be done for 
him. The morning before he died the physician came 
to me and said, "You ought to tell Willie, he does 
not know it, but gangrene has set in and he will not 
live to see the sunset." So I went and tallied with 
the boy. He was calm, brave, and made various 
requests, one was that if it was possible he wanted 
his body taken care of, and after the war was over 
or when it was possible he wanted It laid in the old 
Christiansburg graveyard by the side of his mother. 
After his death it seemed impossible, as things were, 
to get the body out. I prepared it for burial as well 
as I could, and had a great box made, and as Bragg 
was then commander of the post I spoke to him 
about it. He paid me scant courtesy. I consulted 
Breckinridge, and there was a private understanding 
between us that I was to do as I pleased, and should 
I get into trouble he would stay with me, whatever 
the cost might be. That day there was to be brought 
a train of box-cars to carry off the wounded; and I 
spoke to some of the Kentucky boys and told them of 
my plans. I was acting absolutely contrary to what 
General Bragg had said. I intended to take that 
body out at whatever cost, for I had given my prom- 
ise to a dying boy. When the train pulled in the box 
was sitting right on the platfoiTn. I made arrange- 
ments with the Kentucky boys immediately on the 
arrival of the train to shove that box into a car. I 
remember two boys more especially, from Shelby 
County, Kentucky — Henton and Thomas; it may 
be one of them is living to-day. As soon as the box 



1 62 Old Kentucky 

was placed back in the end of the car wounded sol- 
diers and all sat down upon it and covered it. It 
was carried to its destination, my home in Mississippi, 
put in a vault, and when the war was over all that 
remained of the young soldier was brought back and 
laid beside his mother. Without General Breckin- 
ridge I never could have done it. 

General Breckinridge was a man of fine judgment, 
clear discernment, and seemed to me to have almost 
prophetic vision. He and General Ben Hardin 
Helm were in camp at Jackson, Mississippi, before 
the fall of Vicksburg. General Helm and I had 
been out swimming in Pearl River, and when I came 
back I felt fresh, hopeful, and bright. I went over 
to General Breckinridge's headquarters, and it 
seemed that he understood my feelings. He came to 
me, put his ai*ms around me, and said, "Cook, we 
shall never win. We shall all be a set of rag-a- 
muffins." I was shocked and surprised, and never 
breathed it to a human being. This was before 
Vicksburg fell, after the South had gained many 
victories and when we felt almost invincible. And 
I felt that from that time General Breckinridge did 
not want to live; and it was thought by those close 
to him that he courted death at the battle of Chlck- 
amauga. 

It would take pages to tell of the splendid men 
and women that Kentucky has produced. How many 
generals and ofHcers of all ranks and how many men 
Kentucky furnished to the North and the South 
would be hard to enumerate. One reason I have 
spoken especially of John C. Breckinridge is, that 
there is less mention made of him in eulogies and in 
the histoi*y of Kentucky than of any man of equal 
merit who has lived in the State — if he ever had an 
equal. 



Kentucky's Pride in Her Men 163 

Another man that I admired greatly was General 
John Morgan. I kncvv' him before the war, and my 
only tvvo living brothers were with him, when not on 
detached duty, in many of his most important raids. 
My best friends were with him, and if General Mor- 
gan was ever guilty of an inhuman act, or of robber}^ 
or of anything that was unbecoming a gentleman, I 
never found it out. It is not necessary to say any- 
thing of his ability as a soldier; he left his own 
record. 

One of the purest and best public men in Ken- 
tucky, a man about whom little has been said in 
print, was Green Clay Smith, who had in his veins 
the best blood in the State. His father was an At- 
torney-General, and Green Clay was the nephew of 
Cassius M. Clay. He was a man of commanding 
presence, handsome, vigorous, of splendid mind and 
heart. He was honored in many ways; he went 
into the army and became a general; he was brave 
and resourceful; and he was one of the first men to 
teach General Forrest that he was not invincible. 
He was sent to Congress from Kentucky, and was 
made chairman of the military committee. And 
when the nominating convention met it selected Lin- 
coln for a second term for the presidency, and Green 
Clay Smith came within five votes of being selected 
to make the race for Vice-President. He was an in- 
timate friend of Mr. Lincoln's, really his pet, and 
always had free access to him and to the White 
House. He has told me many incidents that I have 
never seen published in regard to Mr. Lincoln's 
private troubles, some of which I could tell, but it 
would probably do no good. Some of them showed 
weakness and some strength. He was appointed 
Governor of Montana, with the expectation of be- 
coming Senator of that State. But he gave It all up 



164 Old Kentucky 

and became a plain Baptist preacher. He visited 
me several times at my home, and was one of the 
most congenial and lovable men that I ever knew. 
I think he made great sacrifices to carry out his con- 
victions, and I once asked him why he made the sac- 
rifices; he replied that in his soul he felt it to be his 
duty, and that he believed had he not done so he 
would never have had a happy day. He died at his 
home in Washington, D. C, where I saw him a few 
months before his death. His mind was peaceful, 
he seemed happy, and he felt that he was carrying 
out his honest convictions. Many would feel that 
the bravest and noblest act of Mr. Smith's life was 
the sacrificing of personal gain and political honor to 
do what he thought was right. His life was no fail- 
ure. He taught a lesson, and showed a heroism and 
personal worth that many cannot comprehend. 

Kentucky has been justly proud of her men in po- 
litical life. Perhaps the Kentuckian who attained 
the widest reputation as a politician was Henry Clay. 
It is not necessai-y here to pass any eulogy on him or 
to give much concerning his history, for his name 
is familiar to every reader of American history. He 
was a great man, an orator, a gentleman, a kind 
neighbor, and an affectionate husband. One of the 
most striking speeches that he ever made was on his 
return from Washington, where he had been the 
foremost figure in the great compromise effort. His 
friends at Lexington met him on his arrival and 
forced him to go to the hotel and make an address 
from its balcony. "Fellow-citizens, friends, and 
neighbors," he said, "I am very glad to see and greet 
you all; but there is a plain, good woman at Ash- 
lands that I would rather see than all of you. Good 
night." He had a beautiful home; the Kentuckians 
loved the name of Ashlands. Strange as it may seem, 



Kentucky's Pride in Her Men 165 

while personally Henry Clay was very popular in 
Kentucky, he had there his bitterest political foes. 
He was not popular in the whole State, for a great 
many of the old Democrats believed that Clay was 
not a true man, that his political doctrines were not 
sound, and they opposed him intensely and bitterly, 
and even when he was candidate for the highest office 
in the nation they did not support him. One of the 
most bitter political contests ever waged in Kentucky 
was in 1844. Clay was the unanimous choice of the 
Whig party for President. James K. Polk, of Ten- 
nessee, was nominee of the Democratic party, and 
Mr. Clay was the third time beaten in his efforts for 
election. That was the first Presidential election 
that I ever remember well ; and it seems to me that 
there was as much excitement as there was in the last 
Presidential election before the war. The polk- 
stalk created nearly as much enthusiasm as the old- 
log-cabin did in Harrison's time. All along the 
highways trees were trimmed up to great heights and 
bundles of polk-stalks fastened on them. To-day 
the name of Henry Clay is held by all Kentuckians, 
of whatever party, in very high esteem. And why 
should not Kentuckians be proud of such men? 

Kentucky has always had an able bar; and you 
will find her sons have always taken highest rank 
wherever they have gone, as judges, advocates, and 
men in public affairs in many States. To-day there 
is no abler man on the supreme bench than Justice 
Harlan. Kentucky's sons have had much to do in 
the legislative affairs of the country, and she has 
furnished United States Senators and Representatives 
to very many States. Missouri has been almost as 
much benefited by the men she received from Ken- 
tucky as she has from all other sources, native-born 
or otherwise. The eight Governors she received 



1 66 Old Kentucky 

from Kentucky have all been men of worth and dis- 
tinction; the eight Senators she received from Ken- 
'tucky have showered lustre upon her name. Many 
of those great men — all of them, perhaps, ought to 
be named; but it would be unfair and almost impos- 
sible to try to select those most distinguished. Take 
away from Illinois the men of renown sent to her by 
the old Commonwealth, and it would almost impov- 
erish her political history. Among some in this State 
we might mention Yates, Oglesby, Palmer, Adlai E. 
Stevenson, and Orville H. Browning — the latter two, 
in my opinion, the superior, all things considered, of 
any above mentioned. 

Many of the most distinguished clergymen and 
educators found in various States, especially in Mis- 
souri, were Kentuckians. Why should not the Old 
Commonwealth be proud of her sons? And had I 
the information and the time there are high tributes 
that could be paid to the noble women of the State; 
for really they had more to do in the forming of 
character than the men, and were eminently worthy 
of the admiration and loyal homage that was paid 
to them. 

Kentucky has always had an able public press. All 
through the State were men of brains conducting 
newspapers; two deserve especial mention. 

George D. Prentice was a remarkable man; 
though a native of Connecticut, his life's work was 
done in Kentucky. From 1830, and until succeeded 
by Henry Watterson, he was the editor of the Louis- 
ville Journal, one of the leading weekly newspapers 
in the countiy. He was a man of wonderful gifts; 
and not only did he write editorials for his paper, 
but he was the author of many poems of merit. His 
Prenticeana, a collection of his witticisms, has gone 
through several enlarged editions. He was a pe- 



Kentucky's Pride in Her Men 167 

cullar and remarkable man, and perhaps enjoyed 
from his friends as much esteem as any man who 
lived in Kentucky, and in the hatred of his enemies 
was also as fortunate. 

Many of the old-time Democrats believed Prentice 
to be a traitor to the best interests of the State, and 
taught their children to believe that if his policies 
were adopted, the State would be rained. Perhaps 
the divided sentiment in the State had much to do 
with its destinies in the civil war. He was a brilliant 
man, and while not considered an orator was one of 
the most impressive speakers that I ever heard. An 
address which he delivered in '58 to the students of 
Georgetown College made a profound impression 
and could not well be forgotten. And his appear- 
ance when he stepped forward, and without introduc- 
tion began, " 'With this, or on this,' said the Spartan 
mother, as she took a shield from the wall where it 
had hung since the death of the patriot father, and 
handed it to her son as he was about to start to the 
battle," thrilled the audience. His influence, what- 
ever may be the difference of opinion, was great in 
the State. 

All in all, Kentucky has never had a greater 
editor, and in many respects a greater man, than 
Henry Watterson, a native of Washington, D. C, 
born Febraary 16, 1840. He vv^as a young man 
when the civil war began, and in 1861 went to Ten- 
nessee and remained with the Confederates until the 
close of the war. When the war closed he assumed 
the editorship of the Nashville Banner, remaining 
there one year, when he succeeded George D. Pren- 
tice as editor of the Louisville Journal. Tn 1868 
the Journal was consolidated with two- other news- 
papers and became the Courier-Journal, with Mr. 
Watterson as part owner and editor-in-chief. In 



1 68 Old Kentucky 

1876 he was elected to Congress, but all his insthict 
seemed to be connected with editorial work, and 
since that time he has had absolute control of his 
paper. He has traveled, lectured, and been honored 
everywhere. He is really a part of Kentucky, and 
he carries Kentucky and Kentuckians in his great big 
heart. Among all the great men who attended the 
Home-coming, and all the great addresses that were 
made, Henry Watterson showed himself to be per- 
haps the most brilliant of them all. 

In Shelbyville, January 7, 1856, was born, of 
good old stock, a man that all Kentucky is proud of. 
He was graduated from West Point in 1878, went 
actively into service, and distinguished himself on 
evei-y occasion. He rose rapidly, until now he is 
chief-of-staff of the United States Army. Had you 
been at Shelbyville the Home-coming week you 
would have seen him, surrounded by multitudes of 
his old friends and admirers, on one of the finest 
horses Kentucky could produce, presented to him by 
those who honored him. He was known to every- 
one of them as General James Franklin Bell. 

He said in a very kind letter to me recently, "I 
am not an old Kentuckian"; and with great modesty 
he indicated that he ought not to be classed with 
the old heroes that I have mentioned in the book. 
Modesty and real greatness generally go together. 
While General Bell would cheerfully give the last 
drop of blood in his body to defend the old flag any- 
where in the world, it is true of him as of others, 
"Once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian." 

One of the great men of the nation, honored and 
loved, not only by Kentuckians but all good men, 
is Justice J. M. Harlan ; and I should be glad to add 
more concerning him, but Hon. Champ Clark, in his 
article, has done this for me. 



Kentucky's Pride in Her Men 169 

I do not mean by what I have said about the pubHc 
men of Kentucky to intimate that I have mentioned 
all the great names that ought to be honored ; I have 
selected just a few as characteristic of the whole. 



CHAPTER X 

THE POETIC SPIRIT 

The history, the sceneiy, the social life of Ken- 
tucky are all conducive to the poetic spirit; and 
while there have been many beautiful things written 
in poetry by Kentuckians and about Kentucky, we 
shall mention only two of the poets. The name of 
Stephen Collins Foster, who wrote "My Old Ken- 
tucky Home," is loved and honored, not only in Ken- 
tucky, but really in all civilized countries. As a 
tender home song it unites the sentiment of the Old 
World with the New, and it has done as much to 
encourage and foster the home spirit as any song 
that was ever written. It brings to memory scenes 
of home, childhood, father and mother, and the most 
hallowed and sacred memories of the human heart. 
And could every descendant of Kentucky have it in 
full, framed and hung upon the wall so that his 
children might know it from infancy, it would be a 
blessing. 

While "My Old Kentucky Home" is especially 
dear to Kentuckians, for the beauty, the sweetness, 
and tenderness of the sentiment it would create a 
love for home in children everywhere. It is not 
generally known that Foster, though not a native of 
Kentucky, became imbued with the very spirit of her 
people, and has written some of the tenderest negro 
songs. He found the inspiration for "My Old Ken- 
tucky Home" in a counti-y home near Bardstown. 
He is, too, the author of "Old Black Joe," "Massa's 
in de Cold, Cold Ground," "WiUie, We Have 
Missed You," and many other songs; and one of his 



The Poetic Spirit 171 

tenderest songs is "Old Folks at Home." At the 
Home-coming Kentiickians devoted a good part of 
one day in paying tribute to Foster's memory, and 
to the unveiling of a model of the statue to his mem- 
oi^y, in the presence of twenty thousand people. 

It has been tiiithfully said, "Let who will write 
your laws, so T may write your songs." Songs have 
had an inspiring influence among all people. Who 
can tell the power of music over the human soul? 
No one can estimate the effect that song and music 
has had upon our country, to say nothing of what it 
has always had in other lands. Take "My Country, 
'Tis of Thee," "Columbia," "Home, Sweet Home," 
"Dixie," "Yankee Doodle" — they all have their 
place and have accomplished their results. 

Theodore O'Hara possessed, in my estimation, the 
highest patriotic and poetic genius, not only of any 
man in Kentucky but of any man in the world. He 
was born in 1820, within a half mile of the scene of 
the Cook massacre, on what is yet known as the 
Theodore O'Hara place, within five miles of Frank- 
fort. This place was originally a part of the Innis 
patent. The old spring-house of the famed author 
of the "Bivouac of the Dead" still stands, but the 
house in which he was born and in which he passed 
his early days has passed away and only the founda- 
tion remains. He has been said to have "produced 
the only perfect and universal martial eulogy that 
the world has known." "The Bivouac of the 
Dead" has been translated into almost every Euro- 
pean language, and since it was written, more than 
fifty years ago, it has been almost as popular in Eng- 
land as in the United States. 

On a monument commemorating one of the hard- 
est-fought battles of the Crimean War the last four 
lines of the first stanza of O'Hara's poem are in- 



172 Old Kentucky 

scribed. Over the gate-way of the National Ceme- 
tery at Arhngton the whole first stanza is inscribed, 
and in Arhngton, as at Antietam, and other National 
cemeteries, the entire poem is produced, stanza by 
stanza, on slabs along the driveways. 

He served in the Mexican war, and wrote "The 
Bivouac of the Dead" on the occasion of the removal 
of the remains of the Kentuckians, who fell in the 
battle of Buena Vista, to their native soil. He had 
not only the poetic, but the martial spirit; he went 
on a filibustering expedition to Cuba ; and at the out- 
break of the civil war he became an officer on the 
staffs of Albert Sidney Johnston and John C. Breck- 
inridge, in the Confederate service. I want tO' in- 
scribe here as a monument to his memory, and hope 
that it may be written where the letters will never 
fade, his words to others. 

"On fame's eternal camping-ground 
Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards, with solemn round. 
The bivouac of the dead. 

"Nor shall your glory be forgot 
While fame her record keeps, 
Or honor points the hallowed spot 
Where valor proudly sleeps. 

"Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's flight, 
Nor Time's remorseless doom 
Can dim one ray of holy light 
That gilds your glorious tomb." 

Who would not be proud of such a noble spirit? 



CHAPTER XI 

CLOUDS 

The year 1858 seems to me to have been one of 
the happiest that Kentucky ever enjoyed. It may 
be that my feelings had something to do with my 
judgment, as that was the year of my graduation 
and the beginning of my active life. But it was for 
the State a year of fine crops, prosperity and peace. 
Happiness seemed to reign everywhere; and there 
was no evidence that Kentucky was so near to the 
sad, dark hours that were just before her. There 
was some disquiet among political men in regard 
to the condition of the country, but not more excite- 
ment than there had been some years previous. The 
people seemed to be enjoying life thoroughly, and 
when you contrast that time with what happened a 
few years later it seems that the impossible came to 
pass. Families were then united, communities ap- 
peared to be thoroughly at peace among themselves, 
the young people were at the height of their enjoy- 
ment, and the State seemed to be on the eve of great 
prosperity. 

In 1859 clouds began tO' gather, but still there 
seemed to be no great dread or alarm and things 
moved along very smoothly. 

The year i860 opened with unrest, and upon the 
part of many the year foreboded nothing that would 
make for peace and happiness. This was a year of 
great political excitement; parties were divided all 
over the country^ People were divided North and 
South on political issues. The South seemed almost 
a unit; and there was a strong feeling existing to 



174 ^Id Kentucky 

secede from a government which they felt was hos- 
tile to their best interests. They were encouraged in 
this sentiment by many people in the North, who 
seemed to desire to be cut loose from them and to let 
them go in peace. Many of the Democrats in the 
North almost championed their cause, while many 
of the fanatics of the North felt that to be in league 
with the South was almost to be in league with the 
Devil. 

The idea of secession was not a new one, for in 
the history of the country there was scarcely one of 
the New England States that had not at some time 
encouraged the feeling of withdrawing from the 
Union in her own special interests. 

The Border States were divided, and the wisest 
men felt that should war occur these States would be 
the battle-ground, and would suffer most. The spirit 
of the majority of the Eastern States in making 
John Brown a hero and almost a saint suggested what 
the South might expect in case there was a war. It 
gave them reason to believe that that most fanatical 
spirit would even turn the negro loose on their wives 
and children. At this time the question as to whether 
this was an indissoluble Union or whether States 
might secede was not settled. The wisest men of the 
Border States felt that a republican government could 
not prosper and exist with slavery as a recognized 
institution. It was unnatural and absurd. 

Kentucky, by reason of her peculiar situation, ex- 
pected that in case of war she would be, in a large 
measure, the battle-ground, and hence decided that 
she would stand neutral ; that she would not take up 
arms against the government nor would she bear arms 
against her sister States. That was the feeling of 
the people. It was naturally impracticable, and the 
State might have known that, with the spirit of her 



Clouds 175 

people being what it was, she could not keep men 
from going out and joining cither one army or the 
other. Her sons had taken part in every war since 
she became a State, and it would be only natural that 
in a war between the States they would join one side 
or the other; neutrality was an impossibility. 

Mr. Lincoln was elected by the most radical abol- 
itionist element of the country, and when this hap- 
pened they felt that all hope of compromise was 
ended. The whole country was intensely excited, 
and the inevitable had to come. It was at the risk 
of his life Mr. Lincoln reached Washington, and 
when the people in Washington, who had seen Presi- 
dents along the generations, saw him, it seemed as 
if it was almost a burlesque for such a man to as- 
sume such a position. South Carolina seceded, and 
finally bombarded Fort Sumter, and when that gal- 
lant Kentuckian, Major Anderson, had to surrender 
the fort and take down the Stars and Stripes, the 
whole country seemed to take fire; call was made 
by Mr. Lincoln for more troops and was responded 
to. 

The dark days had come. On July 21, 1 861, the 
battle of Bull Run was fought. The last bond be- 
tween the States was broken. The Southern troops 
hurled back what they called "the Northern horde" 
upon Washington. The day this battle was fought 
I was at Frankfort, Kentucky, and it was a day long 
to be remembered. The young men almost went 
wild; and I heard, as the Confederate flag was 
waved through the streets, such expressions as this, 
"We'll follow that flag, and cheer it even in hell!" 
Older men read the account of that battle with tears 
streaming from their eyes; they had loved their 
country, and they took a more serious view of what 
was before them. I was an intensely Southern man. 



176 Old Ken lucky 

by instinct and training, but I went off and read the 
account of that battle with tears running down my 
face. Most of the people could not comprehend 
what that war would mean. 

Preparations began to be made and companies 
foiTned; and often from the same family, brothers, 
who had been rocked in the same cradle, and who 
would at any time have died for one another, sepa- 
rated. Some went with the North and some with 
the South. Neighborhoods were divided; even lov- 
ers were divided; old neighbors, who had loved one 
another, began to grow suspicious of one another, 
and to take up arms to enter into one of the bloodiest 
struggles in history. Beautiful, happy Kentucky was 
in the midst of the storm. The oldest and most aris- 
tocratic families furnished the first troops that went 
from the State. Their sons, with hot blood in their 
veins, could not be restrained. Nearly all the best 
young men of the State went into the war. How 
many can never be known, and they will never find 
the resting-places of all her dead. They will never 
mark the graves of perhaps half of them, for they 
cannot be found. 

Kentucky soon fell under the control of the North- 
ern army. Fanaticism and hate raised to the surface 
many common men who did their utmost to disin- 
herit, disfranchise, and rob men of Southern senti- 
ment who had gone out from the State, and the old 
men who remained in the State; and it would be 
hard to conceive of more infamous legislation than 
was made while this party held its power in Ken- 
tucky. But it is still more remarkable how soon this 
outrageous legislation was done away with and wiped 
out after the war closed, and men returned from 
both arniies. One of the most pleasant things con- 
nected with the change in these laws was that the 



Clouds 177 

men who were bravest and fought hardest on the 
Northern side immediately went to work to right the 
wrongs and give every citizen his just rights. There 
were noble men who came back from the Northern 
army with the love for their old State and for their 
fellow-citizens waiTn in their breasts; and it was not 
long until you could scarcely discover in Kentucky 
any personal feeling of hostility among those who 
really took the most active part. Those who had 
been the bravest on both sides during the war were 
the first to strike hands in friendship when the strug- 
gle was ended. A few cowards and cravens, who 
took no part in the war, became very courageous and 
bitter after it was over, but they got no sympathy 
from the true men. Kentucky was soon in peace; 
and there was marrying and inter-marrying between 
those of Northern and Southern sentiment; and the 
old State set out in her march of development and 
improvement as she never had before; and had a 
foreign war occurred every true soldier of the South 
would have gone in for the defence of his country, 
and, if need be, have cheerfully died in the trenches. 
I can illustrate the general feeling among the 
best men of the South, I think, by an incident in my 
own life. I was called upon to make an address at 
the Social Union, Tremont Temple, Boston, some 
time after the war, and was introduced, by agree- 
ment, as a "Rebel." I began by saying I was not 
much of a Rebel like many were; that I only had a 
light case of it; and for the moment I seemed to be 
apologetic. I could see that some were delighted 
with my seeming apology, while others seemed rather 
disgusted. Finally I straightened up my six feet of 
length and said, "I had it about this bad — If every 
Blue-coat in America had been in one heap and a 
magazine was placed under them, I would have 
12 



178 Old Kentucky 

crawled in and fired it. And before the war closed 
I felt that should we be ovenvhelmed, I would rather 
go and live with the root-digger Indians than to have 
associated with you Yankees. I would have left no 
stone unturned to help the Southern men ; but when 
it was all over and calm reflection came to me, I 
said, 'Thank God the country was not torn asunder, 
and that we have a government that will protect 
every inch of territory.' And if need be, to defend it, 
I would crawl to Bunker Hill Monument, shedding 
drops of blood all the way, and defend this country 
with my life." I told them that my ancestors had 
been in the Revolution; that they had fought in al- 
most all the battles for the gaining of this country; 
that a majority of them had been killed by the In- 
dians in Kentucky. I told them that I loved every 
inch of American soil, and that I would teach my 
children, and those who came under my instiaiction, 
to do the same. A great shout went up, "Thank 
God for such Rebels!" 

I give this as an illustration of how I believe the 
best men in the South felt, and they have proved it 
since. I said to those people that while I was thank- 
ful for the results, there were wrongs that they had 
committed and injustices which they had done us, 
which they seemed readily to admit, for the spirit of 
brotherhood had come to abide in this country. And 
it gives me satisfaction to know that when the last 
sun I shall see set shall go down, it will cast its dying 
reflection, the last of the day, on a land the most 
happy and prosperous the world has ever known. 

While no one who has not seen the horrors of 
battle and suffered the anguish that war brings can 
fully understand it, there are many things brought 
out in a war such as v/e had which give a higher ap- 
preciation of the spirit of the American people. 



Clouds 179 

There were many incidents which proved the per- 
sonal kindness and sympathy which were found 
among the men who were engaged in battle. There 
seemed to be no personal animosity between the men ; 
and when it was possible the soldiers of the two 
armies would divide the last they had with their foes. 
The truth is, many of the Southern soldiers were al- 
most starved to death, and it was a mystery how long 
they endured it. After the surrender at Vicksburg 
and the Star Garrison had surrendered, everything 
that the Yankees had was offered to the starving, and 
every provision that could be was made for their 
comfort. 

The saddest sight I saw during the war was when 
the wounded were brought in from the battlefield of 
Shiloh. Not only were the wounded Southerners 
brought In, but a great part of the Northern men. 
Their suffering and distress would have melted the 
hardest heart. For twenty-four hours, while trying 
to minister to them, my eyes were scarcely dried 
from tears, nor did I eat one mouthful or sleep one 
minute. For the first few days they died so rapidly 
they could scarcely be buried. There were many in- 
cidents that might be recited, but I will only mention 
the one that affected me most. 

There was one young fellow, a splendid specimen 
of manhood, from one of the New England States, 
bright and handsome. I went to him to comfort 
him; I forgot that he ever raised a gun against our 
men. Fie said that he knew that he must soon die, 
and die far from home among strangers; that his 
father and mother perhaps would never know how 
the end came; that he had been taught to love and 
honor his mother's God. He felt that he died doing 
his duty, and wanted, If possible, for me to get word 
back and send some tender messages. I took a note 



i8o Old Ken lucky 

of all this, hoping to carry out his last dying wish; 
but there was no means of getting letters out at that 
time, and there was scarcely any means of getting 
letters during the entire war. My mother was dead 
six months before I knew it, and my only sister nearly 
a year before I learned of it. I could not get the 
letter through, and in some way I lost the name, the 
address, and the memoranda I had written, and I 
have never been able to do what was in my heart to 
do. There were thousands of these cases. 

It has been said that war is hell; and there is no 
question that war is horrible always. How near it 
may be hell depends in a good measure upon whether 
a demon's spirit leads the troops or not. It can be 
much mitigated if conducted in a right spirit. But 
many of the most tender incidents connected with 
war never reach the public. The suffering of the 
women and children scarcely ever gets into public 
print, and little is said about it. Many of the 
women and children had to be sent North, especially 
from Alabama and Tennessee. At one time there 
was estimated to be more than 500 little waifs, child- 
ren of Southern soldiers who had been killed in the 
war, in one building in Louisville. Many of them 
were so small they did not even know the names of 
their parents. The people of the State tried to pro- 
vide as well as they could for them, and many found 
good homes and perhaps will never know who their 
parents were. 

I had a lovely cousin, the wife of Rev. Thomas 
Daniel, of Shelby County, Kentucky, who had no 
children. She heard of the condition in Louisville, 
and determined to go there to see if she could not find 
a child for her home. It was upon her mind, and in 
the night she dreamed that she saw these children 
and saw the one she wanted. Next day she went to 



Clouds 1 8 1 

the city, proceeded to seek children out, and looking 
among them her eyes fell upon the picture given her 
in her dream. She started forward and said, "That 
is my child." The little one, only about three years 
old, reached out to her and said, "This is my mam- 
ma." My cousin took her to her home, and no 
mother was ever more tender to her child than she 
was to that one; and on her deathbed it was her re- 
quest that I take that child, then about fifteen years 
old, and educate and care for her, and she left her a 
handsome competence. I educated her and saw her 
married to one of the best men in the State. After 
her marriage it came out, in some way, that her name 
was Scott and that all her people had died, the last 
of whom was her aged grandfather, who. had fol- 
lowed her every day with his prayers. And God 
surely answered those prayers, for no child ever had 
a better home or better surroundings. Many, many 
incidents of this character might be mentioned. 

One I will give as it was given to me by Dr. Ford, 
of Louisville. 

Among the people sent back from the anriy was a 
delicate woman with two children, aged about three 
and five, the one a boy, the other a girl. When she 
reached Louisville she was very feeble, and took a 
room, where she tried to provide for her little ones. 
She had taught them to have faith in God, and that 
if she should ever leave them, to go and tell Him 
what they wanted. Not long after she reached the 
city, heartbroken, disease seized her and she died. 
Some officials, who paid no attention to those little 
children, for ever)'thing was confusion and such 
things were common then, buried her. It was a 
chilly night about the first of November, and hunger 
impelled the children to go out and seek something 
to eat. They wandered about tiie street until they 
came in front of a restaurant. In the window they 



1 82 Old Kentucky 

saw many things which attracted them, but which 
they did not know how to get. The Httle girl said, 
"Buddie, mamma said If we wanted anything to ask 
Jesus; and let's kneel down and tell Him we want 
bread." Some one passing noticed the movement, 
heard the request for bread, and went in, got a loaf 
of bread, and handed It to them, thinking they were 
some street waifs who would be cared for. They 
devoured the bread as they walked along the street, 
and finally reached Walnut street walking hand In 
hand. The little girl again suggested that they pray 
for some place to sleep. They kneeled down on the 
pavement, and just as they kneeled, a noble, good 
man, walking along, reached them and thought he 
would listen to what they had to say. This is what he 
listen to what they had to say. This Is what he 
heard, "Oh, Jesus, mamma said If we wanted any- 
thing to ask you for it, and we have no- place to 
sleep." As they rose this man took them by the 
hand and said, "You shall have a place to sleep; 
come with me." He took them to his comfortable 
home nearby, and when he went In with them he told 
his wife the circumstances. They had just lost their 
little one and the cradle was empty. With that true 
spirit of Kentucky hospitality and love, the childless 
mother took them In her arms. She had them 
bathed, dressed them In the clothes of her own dead 
child, gave them supper, and then put them in a cosy 
bed. The children had a sweet, restful night. In 
the morning they were unwilling to awaken them. 
While the wife played a soft piece of music on the 
piano the man went and listened If he could hear any 
sound. The music awoke them, and the little girl 
said, "Brother, where are we? I reckon this Is 
heaven." And it was indeed heaven to those little 
bereaved children. From the best Information I can 
get, they grew up as children of that family, and 
were loving, Christian characters. 



CHAPTER XII 

KENTUCKIANS AND BORDERMEN 

By Theodore Roosevelt 

The American backwoodsmen had surged up, wave 
upon wave, till their mass trembled in the troughs of 
the AUeghanies, ready to flood the continent beyond. 
The people threatened by them were dimly conscious 
of the danger which as yet only loomed in the dis- 
tance. Far off, among their quiet adobe villages, 
in the sun-scorched lands by the Rio Grande, the slow 
Indo-Iberian peons and their monkish masters still 
walked in the tranquil steps of their fathers, ignorant 
of the growth of power that was to overwhelm their 
children and successors; but nearer by, Spaniard and 
Creole Frenchmen, Algonquin and Appalachian, 
were all uneasy as they began to feel the first faint 
pressure of the American advance. 

As yet they had been shielded by the forests which 
lay over the land like an unrent mantle. All through 
the mountains, and far beyond, it is stretched without 
a break; but toward the mouth of the Kentucky and 
Cumberland rivers the landscape became varied with 
open groves of woodland, with flower-strewn glades 
and great barrens or prairies of long grass. This 
region, one of the fairest in the world, was the de- 
batable ground between the northern and southern 
Indians. Neither dared dwell therein, but both used 
it as their hunting-grounds; and It was traversed 
from end to end by the well-marked war traces w^hich 
they followed when they invaded each other's terri- 
tory. The whites, on tr}'ing to break through the 
barrier which hemmed them in from the western 



184 Old Kentucky 

lands, naturally succeeded best when pressing along 
the line of least resistance; and so their first great 
advance was made in this debatable land, where the 
uncertainly defined hunting-grounds of the Cherokee, 
Creek, and Chickasaw marched upon those of 
Northern Algonquin and Wyandot. 

Unknown and unnamed hunters and Indian traders 
had from time to time pushed some little way into 
the wilderness; and they had been followed by 
others of whom we do indeed know the names, but 
little more. One explorer had found and named the 
Cumberland River and mountains, and the great pass 
called Cumberland Gap. Others had gone far be- 
yond the utmost limits this man had reached, and had 
hunted in the great bend of the Cumberland and in 
the woodland region of Kentucky, famed amongst the 
Indians for the abundance of the game. But their 
accounts excited no more than a passing interest; they 
came and went without comment, as lonely stragglers 
had come and gone for nearly a century. The back- 
woods civilization crept slowly westward without 
being influenced in its movements by their explora- 
tions. 

Finally, however, among these hunters one arose 
whose wanderings were to bear fruit; who was des- 
tined to lead through the wilderness the first body 
of settlers that ever established a community in the 
far west, completely cut off from the seaboard 
colonies. This was Daniel Boone. He was born 
in Pennsylvania in 1734, but when only a boy had 
been brought with the rest of his family to the banks 
of the Yadkin in North Carolina. Here he grew up, 
and as soon as he came of age he married, built a 
log hut, and made a clearing, whereon to farm like 
the rest of his backwoods neighbors. They all tilled 
their own clearings, guiding the plow among the 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 185 

charred stumps left when the trees were chopped 
down and the land burned over, and they were all, as 
a matter of course, hunters. With Boone hunting 
and exploration were passions, and the lonely life 
of the wilderness, with its bold, wild freedom, the 
only existence for which he really cared. He was a 
tall, spare, sinewy man, with eyes like an eagle's, and 
muscles that never tired; the toil and hardship of his 
life made no impress on his iron frame, unhurt by 
intemperance of any kind, and he lived for eighty- 
six years, a backwoods hunter to the end of his days. 
His thoughtful, quiet, pleasant face, so often por- 
trayed, is familiar to every one; It was the face of 
a man who never blustered or bullied, who would 
neither inflict nor suffer any wrong, and who had a 
limitless fund of fortitude, endurance, and indomit- 
able resolution upon which to draw when fortune 
proved adverse. His self-command and patience, 
restless love of adventure, and, in time of danger, 
his absolute trust in his own powers and resources, 
all combined to render him peculiarly fitted to follow 
the career of which he was so fond. 

The way in which the southern part of our western 
country — that Is, all the land south of the Ohio, and 
from thence on to the Rio Grande and the Pacific — 
was won and settled, stands quite alone. The region 
north of It was filled up in a very different manner. 
The Southwest, including therein what was once 
called simply the West, and afterward the Middle 
West, was won by the people themselves, acting as 
Individuals, or as groups of individuals, who hewed 
out their own fortunes In advance of any govern- 
mental action. On the other hand, the Northwest, 
speaking broadly, was acquired by the government, 
the settlers merely taking possession of what the 
whole country guaranteed them. The Northwest is 



1 86 Old Kentucky 

essentially a national domain; it is fitting that it 
should be, as it is, not only by position but by feeling, 
the heart of the nation. 

North of the Ohio the regular army went first. 
The settlements grew up behind the shelter of the 
Federal troops of Hannar, St. Clair and Wayne, 
and of their successors even to our own day. The 
wars in which the borderers themselves bore any 
part were few and trifling compared to the contests 
waged by the adventurers who won Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Texas. 

In the Southwest the early settlers acted as their 
own aiTny, and supplied both leaders and men. 
Sevier, Robertson, Clark, and Boone led their fel- 
low-pioneers to battle, as Jackson did afterward, 
and as Houston did later still. Indeed the South- 
westerners not only won their own soil for them- 
selves, but they were the chief instruments in the 
original acquisition of the Northwest also. Had it 
not been for the conquest of the Illinois towns in 
1779 we would probably never have had any North- 
west to settle ; and the huge tract between the upper 
Mississippi and the Columbia, then called Upper 
Louisiana, fell into our hands, only because the Ken- 
tuckians and the Tennesseeans were resolutely bent 
on taking possession of New Orleans, either by bar- 
gain or battle. All of our territory lying beyond the 
Alleghanies, north and south, was the first won for us 
by the Southwesterners, fighting for their own land. 
The northern part was afterward filled up by the 
thrifty, vigorous men of the Northeast, whose sons 
became the real rulers as well as the preservers of 
the Union; but these settlements of Northerners were 
rendered possible only by the deeds of the nation as 
a whole. They entered on land that the Southerners 
had won, and they were kept there by the strong arm 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 187 

of the Federal Government ; whereas the Southerners 
owed most of their victories only to themselves. 

The first-comers around Marietta did, it is true, 
share to a certain extent in the dangers of the exist- 
ing Indian wars; but their trials are not to be men- 
tioned beside those endured by the early settlers of 
Tennessee and Kentucky; and whereas these latter 
themselves subdued and drove out their foes, the 
former took but an insignificant part in the contest 
by which the possession of their land was secured. 
Besides, the strongest and most numerous Indian 
tribes were in the Southwest. 

The Southwest developed its civilization on Its 
own lines, for good and for ill; the Northwest was 
settled under the national ordinance of 1787, which 
absolutely determined Its destiny, and thereby In the 
end also determined the destiny of the whole nation. 
Moreover, the Gulf coast, as well as the interior, 
from the Mississippi to the Pacific, was held by for- 
eign powers; while in the North this was only true 
of the country between the Ohio and the Great Lakes 
during the first years of the Revolution, until Ken- 
tucky backwoodsmen conquered it. 

The warlike borderers who thronged across the 
Alleghanies, the restless and reckless hunters, the 
hard, dogged frontier farmers, by dint of grim 
tenacity overcame and displaced Indians, French, and 
Spaniards alike; exactly as, fourteen hundred years 
before, Saxon and Angle had overcome and displaced 
Cymric and Gaelic Celts. They were led by no one 
commander; they acted under orders from neither 
king nor congress; they were not cari7lng out the 
plans of any far-sighted leader. In obedience to the 
instincts working half blindly within their breasts, 
spurred ever onward by the fierce desires of their 
eager hearts, they made in the wilderness homes for 



1 88 Old Kentucky 

their children, and by sO' doing wrought out the des- 
tinies of a continental nation. They warred and 
settled from the high hill-valleys of the French Broad 
and the Upper Cumberland to the half-tropical basin 
of the Rio Grande, and to where the Golden Gate 
lets through the long-heaving waters of the Pacific. 
The story of how this was done forms a compact and 
continuous whole. The fathers followed Boone or 
fought at King's Mountain; the sons marched south 
with Jackson to overcome the Creeks and beat back 
the British; the grandsons died at Alamo or charged 
to victory at San Jacinto. They were doing their 
share of a work that began with the conquest of 
Britain, that entered on its second and wider period 
after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, that cul- 
minated in the marvelous growth of the United 
States. The winning of the West and Southwest is 
a stage in the conquest of a continent. 

Not only were the Indians very terrible in battle, 
but they were cruel beyond all belief in victory ; and 
the gloomy annals of border warfare are stained with 
their darkest hues because it was a war in which help- 
less women and children suffered the same hideous 
fate that so often befell their husbands and fathers. 
It was a war waged by savages against armed settlers, 
whose families followed them into the wilderness. 
Such a war is inevitably bloody and cruel; but the 
inhuman love of cruelty for cruelty's sake, which 
marks the red Indian above all other savages, ren- 
dered these wars more terrible than any others. For 
the hideous, unnamable, unthinkable tortures prac- 
ticed by the red men on their captured foes, and on 
their foes' tender women and helpless children, were 
such as we read of in no other struggle, hardly even 
in the revolting pages that tell the deeds of the Holy 
Inquisition. It was inevitable — indeed it was in 



Kentiickiaiis ciud Bordermcn 189 

many instances proper — that such deeds should awake 
in the breasts of the whites the grimmest, wildest 
spirit of revenge and hatred. 

The history of the border wars, both in the ways 
they were begun and in the ways they were waged, 
makes a long tale of injuries inflicted, suffered, and 
mercilessly revenged. Mercy, pity, magnanimity to 
the fallen could not be expected from the frontiers- 
men gathered together to war against an Indian tribe. 
Almost every man of such a band had bitter personal 
wrongs to avenge. He was not taking part in a war 
against a civilized foe; he was fighting in a contest 
where women and children suffered the fate of the 
strong men, and instead of enthusiasm for his coun- 
try's flag and a general national animosity toward 
his enemies, he was actuated by a furious flame of 
hot anger, and was goaded on by memories of which 
merely to think was madness. His friends had been 
treacherously slain while on messages of peace; his 
house had been burned, his cattle driven off, and all 
he had in the world destroyed before he knew that 
war existed and when he felt quite guiltless of all 
offence; his sweetheart or wife had been carried off, 
ravished, and was at the moment the slave and con- 
cubine of some dirty and biiital Indian warrior; his 
son, the stay of his house, had been burned at the 
stake with torments too horrible to mention ; his 
sister, when ransomed and returned to him, had told 
of the weary journey through the woods, when she 
carried around her neck as a horrible necklace the 
bloody scalps of her husband and children; seared 
into his eyeballs, into his very brain, he bore ever with 
him, waking or sleeping, the sight of the skinned, 
mutilated, hideous body of the baby who had just 
grown old enough to recognize him and to crow and 
laugh when taken in his arms. Such incidents as 



190 Old Kcnliicky 

these were not exceptional; one or more, and often 
all of them, were the Invariable attendants of every 
one of the countless Indian Inroads that took place 
during the long generations of forest warfare. It 
was small wonder that men who had thus lost every- 
thing should sometimes be fairly crazed by their 
wrongs. Again and again on the frontier we hear 
of some such unfortunate who has devoted all the 
remainder of his wretched life to the one object of 
taking vengeance on the whole race of the men who 
had darkened his days forever. 

Our frontiers were pushed westwardly by the war- 
like skill and adventurous personal prowess of the 
Individual settlers; regular armies by themselves 
could have done little. For one square mile the 
regular armies added to our domain, the settlers 
added ten — a hundred would probably be nearer the 
truth, A race of peaceful, unwarlike farmers would 
have been helpless before such foes as the red Indians, 
and no auxiliary military force would have protected 
them or enabled them to move westward. Colonists 
fresh from the Old World, no matter how thrifty, 
steady-going and Industrious, could not hold their 
own on the frontier; they had to settle where they 
were protected from the Indians by a living barrier 
of bold and self-reliant American borderers. The 
West would never have been settled save for the fierce 
courage and the eager desire to brave danger so 
characteristic of the stalwart backwoodsmen. 

These armed hunters, woodchoppers, and farmers 
were their own soldiers. They built and manned 
their own forts; they did their own fighting under 
their own commanders. There were no regiments 
of regular troops along the frontier. In the event 
of an Indian Inroad each borderer had to defend 
himself until there was time for them all to gather 



Kentuckians and Bordcrmen 191 

together to repel or avenge it. Every man was ac- 
customed to the use of arms from his childhood; 
when a boy was twelve years old he was given a 
rifle and made a fort-soldier, with a loophole where 
he was to stand if the station was attacked. The 
war was never-ending, for even the times of so-called 
peace were broken by forays and murders; a man 
might grow from babyhood to middle-age on the 
border, and yet never remember a year in which 
some one of his neighbors did not fall a victim to the 
Indians. 

The Virginians were the only foes of the western 
Indians really dreaded; for their backwoodsmen were 
of warlike temper, and had learned to fight effective- 
ly in the forest. The Indians styled them Long 
Knives; or to be more exact, they called them col- 
lectively the "Big Knife." There have been many 
accounts given of the origin of this name, some 
ascribing it to the long knives worn by the hunters 
and backwoodsmen generally, others to the fact that 
some of the noted Virginia fighters in their early 
skirmishes were armed with swords. At any rate 
the title was accepted by all the Indians as applying 
to their most determined foes among the colonists; 
and finally, after we had become a nation, was ex- 
tended so as to apply to Americans generally. 

The interests of the Virginians and Pennsylvanians 
conflicted not only in respect to the ownership of the 
line, but also in respect to the policy to be pursued 
regarding the Indians. The former were armed 
colonists, whose interest it was to get actual posses- 
sion of the soil; whereas in Pennsylvania the Indian 
trade was very important and lucrative, and the num- 
erous traders to the Indian towns were anxious that 
the redskins should remain in undisturbed enjoyment 
of their forests, and that no w^hite man should be 



192 Old Kentucky 

allowed to come among them ; moreover, so long as 
they were able to make heavy profits, they were 
utterly indifferent to the well-being of the white 
frontiersmen, and in return incurred the suspicion and 
hatred of the latter. The Virginians accused the 
traders of being the main cause of the difficulty, as- 
serting that they sometimes incited the Indians to 
outrages, and always, even in the midst of hostilities, 
kept them supplied with guns and ammunition, and 
even bought from them the horses that they had 
stolen on their plundering expeditions against the 
Virginia border. These last accusations were un- 
doubtedly justified, at least in great part, by the facts. 
The interests of the white trader from Pennsylvania 
and of the white settler from Virginia were so far 
from being identical that they were usually diametri- 
cally opposite. 

The settlement of Kentucky was a much more ad- 
venturous and hazardous proceeding than had been 
the case with any previous westward extension of 
population from the old colonies ; because Kentucky, 
instead of abutting on already settled districts, was an 
island in the wilderness, separated by two hundred 
miles of unpeopled and almost impassable forest 
from even the extreme outposts of the seacoast com- 
monwealths. Hitherto every new settlement had 
been made by the simple process of a portion of the 
backwoods pioneers being thrust out in advance of 
the others, while, nevertheless, keeping in touch with 
them, and having their rear covered, as it were, by 
the already colonized country. Now, for the first 
time, a new community of pioneers sprang up, isolated 
in the heart of the wilderness, and thrust far beyond 
the uttermost limits of the old colonies, whose solid 
mass lay along the Atlantic seaboard. The vast belt 
of mountainous woodland that lay between was as 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 1^93 

complete a barrier as If it had been a broad arm of 
the ocean. The first American incomers to Kentucky- 
were for several years almost cut off from the bulk 
of their fellows beyond the forest-clad mountains. 
They had come to settle on ground to which, as far 
as it was possible, the Indian title had been by fair 
treaty extinguished. They ousted no Indians from 
the lands they took; they had had neither the chance 
nor the wish to themselves do wrong; in their eyes 
the attack on the part of the Indians was as wanton 
as it was cruel; and in all probability this view was 
correct, and their assailants were actuated more by 
the desire for scalps and plunder than by resentment 
at the occupation of the hunting grounds to which 
they could have but little claim. In fact, throughout 
the history of the discovery and first settlement of 
Kentucky, the original outrages and murders were 
committed by the Indians on the whites, and not by 
the whites on the Indians. In the gloomy and fero- 
cious wars that ensued, the wrongs done by each side 
were many and great. 

By the end of 1775 the Americans had gained 
firm foothold in Kentucky. Cabins had been built 
and clearings made; there were women and children 
in the wooden forts, cattle grazed on the range, and 
two or three hundred acres of corn had been sown 
and reaped. There were perhaps some three hun- 
dred men in Kentucky, a hardy, resolute, strenuous 
band. They stood shoulder to shoulder in the wil- 
derness, far from all help, surrounded by an over- 
whelming number of foes. Each day's work was 
fraught with danger as they warred with the wild 
forces from which they wrung their living. Around 
them on every side lowered the clouds of the im- 

13 



194 Old Kentucky 

pending death struggle with the savage lords of the 
neighboring lands. 

These backwoodsmen greatly resembled one an- 
other; their leaders were but types of the rank and 
file, and did not differ so very widely from them ; yet 
two men stand out clearly from their fellows : above 
the throng of woodchoppers, game-hunters, and In- 
dian fighters loom the sinewy figures of Daniel Boone 
and George Rogers Clark. 

The men with families and the young men who 
intended to make permanent homes formed the heart 
of the community, the only part worth taking into 
account. There was a steady though thin stream of 
such immigrants, and they rapidly built up around 
them a life not very unlike that which they had left 
behind with their old homes. Even in 1776 there 
was marrying and giving in marriage, and children 
were born in Kentucky. The new-comers had to 
settle in forts, where the young men and maidens had 
many chances for courtship. They married early 
and were as fruitful as they were hardy. Most of 
these marriages were civil contracts, but some may 
have been solemnized by clergymen, for the common- 
wealth received from the outset occasional visits from 
ministers. 

These ministers belonged to different denomina- 
tions, but were all sure of a hearing. The back- 
woodsmen were forced by their surroundings to exer- 
cise a grudging charity toward the various forms of 
religious belief entertained among themselves — 
though they hated and despised French and Spanish 
Catholics, when off in the wilderness they were 
obliged to take a man for what he did, not for what 
he thought. Of course there were instances to the 
contrary, and there is an amusing and authentic 
story of two hunters, living alone and far from any 



Kenluck'uuis cuid Bordcnucn 195 

settlement, who quarreled because one was a Catholic 
and the other a Protestant. The scceder took up his 
abode in a hollow tree within speaking distance of 
his companion's cabin. Every day on arising they 
bade each other good-morning; but not another word 
passed between them for the many months during 
which they saw no other white face. There was a 
single serious and important, albeit only partial, ex- 
ception to this general iiile of charity. After the 
outbreak of the Rcv^olution, the Kentuckians, in com- 
mon with other backwoodsmen, grew to thoroughly 
dislike one religious body which they already dis- 
trusted; this was the Church of England, the Episco- 
pal Church. They long regarded it as merely the 
persecuting ecclesiastical arm of the British Govern- 
ment. Such of them as had been brought up in any 
faith at all had for the most part originally professed 
some form of Calvinism; they had very probably 
learned their letters from a primer which in one of 
its rude cuts represented John Rogers at the stake, 
surrounded by his wife and several children, and in 
after lives they were more familiar with the "Pil- 
grim's Progress" than with any other book save the 
Bible; so that it w^as natural for them to distmst the 
successors of those who had persecuted Rogers and 
Bunyan. Still, the border communities were, as 
times then went, very tolerant In religious matters; 
and of course most of the men had no chance to dis- 
play, or indeed to feel, sectarianism of any kind, for 
they had no issue to join, and rarely a church about 
which to rally. 

By the time Kentucky was settled the Baptists had 
begun to make headway on the frontier, at the ex- 
pense of the Presbyterians. The rough democracy 
of the border welcomed a sect which was Itself es- 
sentially democratic. To many of the backwoods- 



196 Old Kentucky 

men's prejudices, notably their sullen and narrow hos- 
tilit}^ toward all rank, whether or not based on merit 
and learning, the Baptist's creed appealed strongly. 
Where their preachers obtained foothold, it was 
made a matter of reproach to the Presbyterian cler- 
gymen that they had been educated in early life for 
the ministry as a profession. The love of liberty, 
and the defiant assertion of equality, so universal in 
the backwoods, and so excellent in themselves, some- 
times took very warped and twisted forms, notably 
when they betrayed the backwoodsmen into the belief 
that the true democratic spirit forbade any exclusive 
and especial training for the professions that produce 
soldiers, statesmen, or ministers. 

The fact that the Baptist preachers were men 
exactly similar to their fellows in all their habits of 
life, not only gave them a good standing at once, but 
likewise enabled them veiy early tO' visit the farthest 
settlements, traveling precisely like other backwoods- 
men; and once there, each preacher, each earnest 
professor, doing bold and fearless missionary work, 
became the nucleus round which a little knot of true 
believers gathered. 

The early settlers of course had to suffer great 
hardship even when they reached Kentucky. The 
only two implements the men invariably carried were 
the axe and rifle, for they were almost equally proud 
of their skill as warriors, hunters, and woodchoppers. 
Next in importance came the sickle or scythe. The 
first three tasks of the pioneer farmer were to build 
a cabin, to make a clearing — burning the brush, cut- 
ting down the small trees, and girdling the large — 
and to plant corn. Until the crop ripened he hunted 
steadily, and his family lived on the abundant game, 
save for which it would have been wholly impossible 
to settle Kentucky so early. If it was winter-time, 



Kentuckians aftd Bordermen 197 

however, all the wild meat was very lean and poor 
eating, unless by chance a bear was found in a hollow 
tree, when there was a royal feast, the breast of 
the wild turkey serving as a substitute for bread. If 
the men were suddenly called away by an Indian 
inroad, their families sometimes had to live for days 
on boiled tops of green nettles. Naturally the chil- 
dren watched the growth of the tasseled corn with 
hungry eagerness until the milky ears were fit for 
roasting. When they hardened, the grains were 
pounded into hominy in the hominy-block, or else 
ground into meal in the rough hand-mill, made of 
two limestones in a hollow sycamore log. Until flax 
could be grown, the women were obliged to be con- 
tent with lint made from the bark of dead nettles. 
This was gathered in the spring-time by all the people 
of a station acting together, a portion of the men 
standing guard while the rest, with the women and 
children, plucked the dead stalks. 

In the West the War of the Revolution was an 
effort on the part of Great Britain to stop the west- 
ward growth of the English race in America, and 
to keep the region beyond the i\lleghenies as a 
region where only savages should dwell. 

All through the winter of '76-'77 the northwestern 
Indians were preparing to take up the tomahawk. 
Runners were sent through the leafless, frozen woods 
from one to another of their winter camps. In each 
bleak, frail village, each snow-hidden cluster of bark 
wigwams, the painted, half-naked warriors danced 
the war dance, and sang the war song, beating the 
ground with their war clubs and keeping time with 
their feet to the rhythmic chant as they moved in 
rings round the peeled post, into which they struck 
their hatchets. The hereditary sachem, the peace 
chiefs, could no longer control the young men. The 



198 Old Kentucky 

braves made ready, the plumes of the war eagle were 
braided Into their long scalp locks, and some put on 
necklaces of bear's claws, and head-dresses made of 
panther skin, or of the shaggy and horned frontlet 
of the buffalo. Before the snow was off the ground 
the war parties crossed the Ohio and fell on the 
frontiers from the Monongahela and Kanawha to the 
Kentucky. 

On the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers the 
panic was tremendous. The people fled into the 
already existing forts, or hastily built others; where 
there were but two or three families in a place, they 
merely gathered into block-houses — stout log-cabins 
two stories high, with loop-holed walls, and the upper 
story projecting a little over the lower. The savages, 
well armed with weapons supplied them from the 
British arsenals on the Great Lakes, spread over the 
country; and there ensued all the horrors incident to 
a war waged as relentlessly against the most help- 
less non-combatants as against the armed soldiers in 
the field. Block-houses were surprised and burnt; 
bodies of militia were ambushed and destroyed. The 
settlers were shot down as they sat by their hearth- 
stones in the evening, or ploughed the ground during 
the day; the lurking Indians crept up and killed them 
while they still-hunted the deer, or w^hile they lay in 
wait for the elk beside the well-beaten game trails. 

The captured women and little ones were driven 
off to the far interior. The weak among them, the 
young children, and the women heavy with child, 
were tomahawked and scalped as soon as their steps 
faltered. The able-bodied, \v\\o could stand the 
terrible fatigue, and reached their journey's end, 
suffered various fates. Some were burned at the 
stake, others were sold to the French or British 
traders, and long afterward made their escape, or 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 199 

were ransomed by their relatives. Still others were 
kept in the camps, the women becoming the slaves 
or wives of the warriors, while the children were 
adopted into the tribe, and grew up precisely like 
their little red-skinned playmates. 

Seventeen hundred and eighty-two proved to be 
Kentucky's year of blood. The British at Detroit had 
strained every nerve to drag into the war the entire 
Indian population of the Northwest. They had 
finally succeeded in arousing even the most distant 
tribes — not to speak of the twelve thousand savages 
immediately tributary to Detroit. So lavish had 
been the expenditure of money and presents to se- 
cure the good-will of the savages and enlist their 
active services against the Americans, that it had 
caused serious complaint at headquarters. 

Early in the spring the Indians renewed their 
forays; horses were stolen, cabins burned, and 
women and children were carried oft captive. The 
people were confined closely to their stockaded forts, 
from which small bands of riflemen sallied to patrol 
the country. From time to time these encountered 
marauding parties, and in the fights that followed 
sometimes the whites, sometimes the reds were vic- 
torious. 

One of these conflicts attracted wide attention on 
the border because of the obstinacy with which it was 
waged, and the bloodshed that accompanied it. In 
March a party of twenty-five Wyandots came Into the 
settlements, passed Boonesborough, and killed and 
scalped a girl within sight of Estill's Station. The 
men from the latter, also to the number of twenty- 
five, hastily gathered under Captain Estill, and after 
two days' hot pursuit overtook the Wyandots. A fair 
stand-up fight followed, the better marksmanship of 
the whites being oftset, as so often before, by the 



200 Old Kentucky 

superiority their foes showed in sheltering them- 
selves. At last victoi-y declared for the Indians. 
Estill had despatched a lieutenant and seven men to 
get arounci the Wyandots and assail them in the rear; 
but either the lieutenant's heart or his judgment 
failed him, he took too long, and meanwhile the 
Wyandots closed in on the others, killed nine, includ- 
ing Estill, and wounding four, who, with their un- 
hurt companions, escaped. It is said that the Wyan- 
dots themselves suffered heavily. 

These various ravages and skirmishes were but the 
prelude to a far more serious attack. In July the 
British captains Caldwell and McKee came down 
from Detroit with a party of rangers, and gathered 
together a great army of over a thousand Indians — 
the largest body of either red men or white that 
was ever mustered west of the Alleghanies during 
the Revolution. They meant to strike at Wheeling; 
but while on their march thither were suddenly 
alarmed by the rumor that Clark intended to attack 
the Shawnee towns. They at once countermarched, 
but on reaching the threatened towns found that the 
alarm had been groundless. Most of the savages, 
with characteristic fickleness of temper, then declined 
to go farther; but a body of somewhat over three 
hundred Hurons and lake Indians remained. With 
these, and their Detroit rangers, Caldwell and Mc- 
Kee crossed the Ohio and marched into Kentucky, 
to attack the small forts of Fayette County. 

Fayette lay between the Kentucky and the Ohio 
rivers, and was then the least populous and most 
exposed of the three counties into which the grow- 
ing young commonwealth was divided. In 1782 
it contained but five of the small stockaded towns in 
which all the early settlers were obliged to gather. 
The best-defended and most central was Lexington, 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 201 

round which were grouped the other four — Bryan's 
(which was the largest), McGee's, McConnell's, 
Boone's. Boone's Station, sometimes called Boone's 
New Station, where the tranquil, resolute old pioneer 
at that time dwelt, must not be confounded with his 
former fort of Boonesborough, from which it was 
several miles distant, north of the Kentucky. Since 
the destruction of Martin's and Ruddle's stations on 
the Licking, Bryan's on the south bank of the Elk- 
horn was left as the northernmost outpost of the 
settlers. Its stout, loopholed palisades enclosed 
some forty cabins, there were strong block-houses at 
the corners, and it was garrisoned by fifty good rifle- 
men. 

These five stations were held by backwoodsmen of 
the usual Kentucky stamp, from the up-country of 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Gen- 
erations of frontier life had made them with their 
fellows the most distinctive and typical Americans 
on the continent, utterly different from their Old- 
World kinsfolk. 

Throughout June and July the gunboat patrolled 
the Ohio, going up to the Licking. Parties of back- 
woods riflemen, embodied as militia, likewise pa- 
troled the woods, always keeping their scouts and 
spies well spread out, and exercising the greatest care 
to avoid being surprised. They greatly hampered 
the Indian war bands, but now and then the latter 
slipped by and fell on the people they protected. 
Early in August such a band committed some rava- 
ges south of the Kentucky, beating back with loss a 
few militia who followed It. Some of the Fayette 
men were about setting forth to try and cut off Its 
retreat w^hen the sudden and unlooked-for approach 
of Caldwell and McKee's great war party obliged 
them to bend all their energies to their own defence. 



202 Old Kentucky 

The blow fell on Bryan's Station. The rangers 
and warriors moved down through the forest with 
the utmost speed and stealth, hoping to take this, the 
northernmost of the stockades, by surprise. If they 
had succeeded, Lexington and the three smaller 
stations north of the Kentucky would probably like- 
wise have fallen. 

The attack was made early on the morning of the 
1 6th of August. Some of the settlers were in the 
corn-fields, and the rest inside the palisades of stand- 
ing logs; they were preparing to follow the band of 
marauders who had gone south of the Kentucky. A 
few outlying Indian spies were discovered, owing to 
their eagerness; and the whites being put on their 
guard, the attempt to carry the fort by the first rush 
was, of course, foiled. Like so many other sta- 
tions, — but unlike Lexington, — Bryan's had no 
spring within its walls, and as soon as there was 
reason to dread an attack it became a matter of vital 
importance to lay in a supply of water. It was 
feared that to send the men to the spring would 
arouse suspicion in the minds of the hiding savages; 
and, accordingly, the women went down with their 
pails and buckets as usual. The younger girls 
showed some nervousness, but the old housewives 
marshalled them as coolly as possible, talking and 
laughing together, and by their unconcern completely 
deceived the few Indians who were lurking nearby — 
for the main body had not yet come up. This ad- 
vance guard of savages feared that, if they attacked 
the women, all chance of surprising the fort would 
be lost; and so the water-carriers were suffered to 
go back unharmed. Hardly were they within the 
fort, however, when some of the Indians found that 
they had been discovered, and the attack began so 
quickly that one or two of the men who had lingered 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 203 

in the corn-fields were killed, or else were cut off and 
fled to Lexington; while, at the same time, swift- 
footed runners were sent out to carry the alarm to 
the different stockades, and summon their riflemen 
to the rescue. 

At first but a few Indians appeared, on the side of 
the Lexington road; they whooped and danced de- 
fiance to the fort, evidently inviting an attack. Their 
purpose was to lure the defenders into sallying out 
after them, when their main body was to rush at the 
stockade from the other side. But they did not suc- 
ceed in deceiving the veteran Indian fighters who 
manned the heavy gates of the fort, stood behind 
the loopholed walls, or scanned the country round 
about from the high block-houses at the corners. A 
dozen active young men were sent out on the Lexing- 
ton road to carry on a mock skirmish with the decoy 
party, while the rest of the defenders gathered be- 
hind the wall on the opposite side. As soon as a 
noisy but harmless skirmish had been begim by the 
sallying party, the main body of warriors burst out 
of the woods and rushed toward the western gate. A 
single volley from the loop-holes drove them back, 
while the sallying party returned at a run and en- 
tered the Lexington gate unharmed, laughing at the 
success of their counter-stratagem. 

The Indians surrounded the fort, each crawling up 
as close as he could find shelter behind some stump, 
tree or fence. An irregular fire began, the whites, 
who were better covered, having slightly the ad- 
vantage, but neither side suffering much. This lasted 
for several hours, until early in the afternoon a party 
from Lexington suddenly appeared and tried to force 
its way into the fort. 

The runners who slipped out of the fort at the first 
alarm went straight to Lexington. There they found 



204 Old Kentucky 

that the men had just started out to cut off the re- 
treat of the marauding savages who were ravaging 
south of the Kentucky. Following their trail they 
speedily overtook the troops, and told of the attack 
on Bryan's. Instantly forty men under Major Levi 
Todd countermarched to the rescue. Being ignorant 
of the strength of the Indians they did not wait for 
the others, but pushed boldly forward, seventeen be- 
ing mounted and the others on foot. 

The road from Lexington to Bryan's for the last 
few hundred yards lay beside a field of growing 
corn taller than a man. Some of the Indians were 
lying in this field when they were surprised by the 
sudden appearance of the rescuers, and promptly 
fired on them. Levi Todd and the horesmen, who 
were marching in advance, struck spurs into their 
steeds, and galloping hard through the dust and 
smoke reached the fort in safety. The footmen were 
quickly forced to retreat toward Lexington; but the 
Indians were too surprised by the unlooked-for ap- 
proach to follow, and they escaped with the loss of 
one man killed and three wounded. 

That night the Indians tried to burn the fort, 
shooting flaming arrows onto the roofs of the cabins 
and rushing up to the wooden wall with lighted 
torches. But they were beaten off at each attempt. 
When day broke they realized that it was hopeless 
to make any further effort, though they still kept up 
a desultory fire on the fort's defenders; they had 
killed most of the cattle and pigs, and some of the 
horses, and had driven away the rest. 

Girty, who was among the assailants, as a last 
shift, tried to get the garrison to surrender, assuring 
them that the Indians were hourly expecting rein- 
forcements, including the artillery brought against 
Ruddle's and Martin's stations two years previously; 



Kentttckiaus and Bordermen 205 

and that if forced to batter down the walls no quar- 
ter would be given to any one. Among the fort's de- 
fenders was young Aaron Reynolds, the man whose 
profanity formerly roused Captain Patterson's ire; 
and he now undertook to be spokesman for the rest. 
Springing into sight he answered Girty in the tone 
of rough banter so dear to the backwoodsmen, tell- 
ing the renegade that he knew him well, and de- 
spised him; that the men in the fort feared neither 
cannon nor reinforcements, and, if need be, could 
drive Girty's tawny followers back from the walls 
with switches; and he ended by assuring him that 
the whites, too, were expecting help, for the coun- 
try was roused, and if the renegade and his followers 
dared to linger where they were for another twenty- 
four hours, their scalps would surely be sun-dried 
on the roofs of the cabins. 

The Indians knew well that the riflemen were mus- 
tering at all the neighboring forts; and as soon as 
their effort to treat failed, they withdrew during 
the forenoon of the 17th. They were angry and 
sullen at their discomfiture. Five of their number 
had been killed and three wounded. Among the 
children within its walls during the siege there was 
one, the youngest, a Kentucky-born baby, named 
Richard Johnson; over thirty years later he led the 
Kentucky mounted riflemen at the victory of the 
Thames, when they killed not only the great Indian 
chief Tccumsch, but also, it is said, the implacable 
renegade Simon Girty himself, then in extreme old 
age. 

Extract of a letter from Captain Caldwell, dated 
at Wakitamiki, August 26, 1782, giving British 
account : 

When I last had the pleasure of writing you, I expected 
to have struck at Wheeling as I was on my march for that 



2o6 Old Kentucky 

place, but was overtaken by a Messenj^er from the Shaw necs, 
who informed me that the Enemy \vas on their march for 
their countr\', which oblifj^ed me to turn their way, and to 
my great mortification found the alarm false & that it was 
owing to a Gondals coming up to the mouth of Licking 
Creek, and landing some men upon the south side of the 
Ohio which when the Indians saw supposed it must be 
Clark. It would have been a lucky circumstance if they 
had come on, as I had eleven hundred Indians on the ground, 
and three hundred within a day's march of me. When the 
Report w^as contradicted They mostly left us, many of them 
had left their towns no way equipped for war, as they ex- 
pected as well as myself to fight in a few days, notwith- 
standing I was determined to pay the Enemy a visit with 
as many Indians as would follow me: accordingly I crossed 
the Ohio with three hundred Indians and Rangers and 
marched for Br3'ants Station on Kentucky, and surrounded 
the fort the 15th in the morning, & tried to draw" 'em out 
by sending up a small party to try to take a prisoner and 
shew themselves, but the Indians were in too great a hurry 
and the whole shewed too soon — I then saw it was in vain 
to wait any longer and so drew nigh the fort, burnt three 
Houses which are part of the Fort but the wind being con- 
trary prevented it having the desired effect. Killed upwards 
of 300 Hogs, 150 head of Cattle, and a number of Sheep, 
took a number of Horses, pull'd up and destroyed their 
potatoes, cut down a great deal of their corn, burn't their 
hemp and did other considerable damage—by the Indians ex- 
posing themselves too much wc had 5 Killed and 2 Wounded. 

By the summer of 1790 the raids of the Indians 
had become iinhearable. Fresh robberies and mur- 
ders were committed every day in Kentucky, or along 
the Wabash and Ohio. Writing tO' the Secretary of 
War, a prominent Kentucklan, well knowing all the 
facts, estim.ated that during the seven years which 
had elapsed since the close of the Revolutionary War 
the Indians had slain fifteen hundred people in Ken- 
tucky itself, or on the immigrant routes leading 
thither, and had stolen twenty thousand horses, be- 
sides destroying immense quantities of other prop- 



Kenltickians and Bordermen 207 

crty. The Federal generals were also urgent in as- 
serting the folly of cari7ing on a merely defensive 
war against such foes. All the efforts of the Federal 
authorities to make treaties with the Indians and 
persuade them to be peaceful had failed. The In- 
dians themselves had renewed hostilities, and the dif- 
ferent tribes had one by one joined in the war, be- 
having with a treachery only equalled by their fe- 
rocity. With great reluctance the National Govern- 
ment concluded that an effort to chastise the hostile 
savages could no longer be delayed; and those on 
the Maumee, or Miami of the Lakes, and on the 
Wabash, whose guilt had been peculiarly heinous, 
were singled out as the objects of attack. 

The expedition against the Wabash tov/ns was led 
by the Federal commander at Vincenncs, Major 
Hamtranck. No resistance was encountered; and 
after burning a few villages of bark huts and de- 
stroying some corn he returned to Vincennes. 

The main expedition was that against the Miami 
Indians, and was led by General Harmar himself. 
It was arranged that there should be a nucleus of 
regular troops, but that the force should consist 
mainly of militia from Kentucky and Pennsylvania, 
the former furnishing twice as many as the latter. 
The troops were to gather on the 15th of September 
at Fort Washington, on the north bank of the Ohio, 
a day's journey down-stream from Limestone. 

Nevertheless, the net result was a mortifying fail- 
ure. In all, the regulars had lost 75 men killed and 
3 wounded, while of the militia 28 had been wounded 
and 108 had been killed or were missing. The 
march back was very dreary; and the militia became 
nearly ungovernable, so that at one time Hannar 
reduced them to order only by threatening to fire 
on them with the artillery. 



2o8 Old Kentucky 

The loss of all their provisions and dwellings ex- 
posed the Miami tribes to severe suffering and want 
during the following winter; and they had also lost 
many of their warriors. But the blow was only se- 
vere enough to anger and unite them, not to cripple 
or crush them. All the other western tribes made 
common cause with them. They banded together 
and warred openly; and their vengeful forays in- 
creased in number, so that the suffering of the settlers 
was great. Along the Ohio people lived in hourly 
dread of the tomahawk and scalping knife; the at- 
tacks fell unceasingly on all the settlements from 
Marietta to Louisville. 

The West had grown with astonishing rapidity 
during the seven years following the close of the 
Revolutionary war. In 1790 there were in Ken- 
tucky nearly seventy-four thousand, and in the South- 
west Territory nearly thirty-six thousand souls. 

The conduct of the Americans in the years which 
closed with Wayne's treaty did not shine very 
brightly; but the conduct of the British was black, 
indeed. On the Northwestern frontier they behaved 
in a way which can scarcely be too harshly stigma- 
tized. This does not apply to the British civil and 
military officers at the Lake posts; for they were 
merely doing their duty as they saw it, and were 
fronting their foes bravely, while with loyal zeal they 
strove to carry out what they understood to be the 
policy of their superiors. The ultimate responsibility 
rested with their superiors, the Crown's high advis- 
ers, and the King and Parliament they represented. 
Their treatment both of the Indians, whom they pro- 
fessed to protect, and of the Americans, with whom 
they professed to be friendly, forms one of the dark- 
est pages in the annals of the British in America. 
Yet they have been much less severely blamed for 



Kentuckians and Bordermen 209 

their behavior in this matter, than for more excusable 
offences. American historians, for example, usually 
condemn them without stint because in 18 14 the 
army of Ross and Cockburn burned and looted the 
public buildings of Washington; but by rights they 
should keep all their condemnation for their own 
country, so far as the taking of Washington is con- 
cerned; for the sin of burning a few public buildings 
is as nothing compared with the cowardly infamy of 
which the politicians of the stripe of Jefferson and 
Madison, and the people whom they represented, 
were guilty in not making ready by sea and land to 
protect their capital and in not exacting full revenge 
for its destruction. 

The count against the British on the Northwest- 
ern frontier is, not that they insisted on their rights, 
but that they were guilty of treachery to both friend 
and foe. The success of the British was incompat- 
ible with the good of mankind in general, and of 
the English-speaking races in particular; for they 
strove to prop up savager)^ and to bar the westward 
march of the settler-folk whose destiny it was to 
make ready the continent for civilization. But the 
British cannot be seriously blamed because they 
failed to see this. Their fault lay in their aiding and 
encouraging savages in a warfare which was neces- 
sarily horrible; and still more in their repeated 
breaches of faith. The horror and the treachery 
were the inevitable outcome of the policy on which 
they had embarked ; it can never be otherwise when 
a civilized government endeavors to use, as allies in 
war, savages whose acts it cannot control and for 
whose welfare it has no real concern. 

Doubtless the statesmen who shaped the policy 
of Great Britain never deliberately intended to 

14 



2IO Old Kentucky 

break faith, and never fully realized the awful na- 
ture of the Indian warfare for which they were in 
part responsible; they thought very little of the mat- 
ter at all in the years which saw the beginning of 
their stupendous stniggle with France. But the acts 
of their obscure agents on the far interior frontier 
were rendered necessary and inevitable by their 
policy. To encourage the Indians to hold their own 
against the Americans, and to keep back the settlers, 
meant to encourage a war of savagery against the 
border vanguard of white civilization; and such a 
war was sure to teem with fearful deeds. Moreover, 
where the interests of the British crown were so 
manifold it was idle to expect that the Crown's ad- 
visers would treat as of much weight the welfare of 
the scarcely known tribes whom their agents had 
urged to enter a contest which was hopeless except 
for British assistance. The British statesmen were 
engaged in gigantic schemes of warfare and diplo- 
macy; and to them the Indians and the frontiers- 
men alike were pawns on a great chessboard, to be 
sacrificed whenever necessary. When the British au- 
thorities deemed it likely that there would be war 
with America, the tribes were incited to take up the 
hatchet; when there seemed a chance of peace with 
America the deeds of the tribes were disowned; and 
peace was finally assured by a cynical abandonment 
of their red allies. In short, the British, while pro- 
fessing peace with the Americans, treacherously in- 
cited the Indians to war against them; and, when 
it suited their own interests, they treacherously 
abandoned their Indian allies to the impending ruin. 
Most important of all, the slavery question, which 
aftei-ward rived in sunder the men west of the Alle- 
ghanies as it rived it asunder those east of them, was 
of small importance in the early years. West of the 



Kentuckiatis and Bordermcn 211 

Allcghanics slaves were still to be found almost 
everywhere, while almost ever}'where there were also 
frequent and open expressions of slavery. The 
Southerners still rather disliked slavery^, while the 
Northerners did not as yet feel any very violent an- 
tagonism to it. In the Indiana Territory there were 
hundreds of slaves, the property of the old French 
inhabitants and of the American settlers who had 
come there prior to 1787; and the majority of the 
population of this Territory actually wished to re- 
introduce slavery, and repeatedly petitioned Congress 
to be allowed the reintroduction. Congress, with 
equal patriotism and wisdom, always refused the pe- 
tition ; but it was not until the new century was well 
under way that the anti-slavery element obtained con- 
trol in Indiana and Illinois. Even in Ohio there 
was a considerable party which favored the intro- 
duction of slavery, and though the majority was 
against this, the people had small sympathy with the 
negroes, and passed very severe laws against the in- 
troduction of free blacks into the State, and even 
against those already in residence therein. On the 
other hand, when Kentucky's first constitutional con- 
vention sat, a resolute effort was made to abolish 
slavery within the State, and this effort was only de- 
feated after a hard struggle and a close vote. To 
their honor be it said that all of the clergymen — 
three Baptists, one Methodist, one Dutch Reformed, 
and one Presbyterian — who were members of the 
constitutional convention, voted in favor of the aboli- 
tion of slaverv^ In Tennessee no such effort was 
made, but the leaders of thought did not hesitate to 
express their horror of slaver}- and their desire that 
it might be abolished. There was no sharp differ- 
ence between the attitudes of the Northwestern and 
the Southwestern States toward slavery. 



212 Old Kentucky 

North and South alike, the ways of life were sub- 
stantially the same; though there were differences, 
of course, and these differences tended to become 
accentuated. Thus, in the Mississippi Territory the 
planters, in the closing years of the century, began 
to turn their attention to cotton instead of devoting 
themselves to the crops of their brethren farther 
north; and cotton soon became their staple product. 
But as yet the typical settler everywhere was a man 
of the axe and rifle, the small pioneer farmer who 
lived by himself, with his wife and his swarming 
children, on a big tract of wooded land, perhaps 
three or four hundred acres in extent. Of this three 
or four hundred acres he rarely cleared more than 
eight or ten ; and these were cleared imperfectly. 
On this clearing he tilled the soil, and there he lived 
in his rough log house with but one room, or at most 
two and a loft. 

The man of the Western waters was essentially a 
man who dwelt alone in the midst of the forest on 
his rude little farm, and who' eked out his living by 
hunting. Game still abounded everywhere, save in 
the immediate neighborhood of the towns; so that 
many of the inhabitants lived almost exclusively by 
hunting and fishing, and, with their return to the 
pursuits of savagery, adopted not a little of the sav- 
age idleness and thriftlessness. Bear, deer, and tur- 
key were staple foods. Elk had ceased to be com- 
mon, though they hung on here and there in out of 
the way localities for many years; and by the close 
of the century the herds of bison had been driven 
west of the Mississippi. Smaller forms of wild life 
swarmed. Gray squirrels existed in such incredible 
numbers that they caused very serious damage to the 
crops, and at one time the Kentucky Legislature 
passed a bill imposing upon every male over sixteen 



Kenluckicuis and Bordermen 213 

years of age the duty of killing a certain number of 
squirrels and crows every year. The settlers pos- 
sessed horses and horned cattle, but only a few sheep, 
which were not fitted to fight for their own existence 
in the woods, as the stock had to. On the other 
hand, slab-sided, long-legged hogs were the most 
plentiful of domestic animals, ranging in great, 
half-wild droves through the forest. 

All observers were struck by the intense fondness 
of the frontiersmen for the woods and for a restless, 
lonely life. They pushed independence to an ex- 
treme; they did not wish to work for others or to 
rent land from others. Each was himself a small 
landed proprietor, who cleared only the ground that 
he could himself cultivate. Workmen were scarce 
and labor dear. It was almost impossible to get 
men fit to work as mill hands, or to do high-class 
labor in forges even by importing them from Penn- 
sylvania or Maryland. Even in the few towns the 
inhabitants preferred that their children should fol- 
low agriculture rather than become handicraftsmen; 
and skilled workmen such as carpenters and smiths 
made a great deal of money, so much so that they 
could live a week on one day's wage. 

The Westerners were a farmer folk who lived on 
the clearings their own hands had made In the great 
woods, and who owned the land they tilled. Towns 
were few and small. At the end of the century there 
were some four hundred thousand people in the 
West; yet the largest town was Lexington, which 
contained less than three thousand people. Lexing- 
ton was a neatly built little burg, with fine houses 
and good stores. The leading people lived well and 
possessed much cultivation. Louisville and Nash- 
ville were each about half its size. In Nashville, 
of the one hundred and twenty houses but eight 



214 O^d Kentucky 

were of brick, and most of them were merely log 
huts. Cinchinati was a poor little village. Cleve- 
land consisted of but two or three log cabins, at a 
time when there were already a thousand settlers in 
its neighborhood on the Connecticut Reserve, scat- 
tered out on their farms. 

Kentucky had grown so in population, possessing 
over two hundred thousand inhabitants, that she had 
begun to resemble an Eastern State. When, in 1796, 
Benjamin Logan, the representative of the old wood- 
choppers and Indian fighters, ran for governor and 
was beaten, it was evident that Kentucky had passed 
out of the mere pioneer days. It was more than a 
mere coincidence that in the following year Heni-y 
Clay should have taken up his residence in Lexing- 
ton. It showed that the State was already attract- 
ing to live within her borders men like those who 
were fitted for social and political leadership in Vir- 
ginia. 

Though the typical inhabitant of Kentucky was 
still the small frontier farmer, the class of well-to-do 
gentry had already attained good proportions. Else- 
where throughout the West, in Tennessee, and even 
here and there in Ohio and the Territories of Indi- 
ana and Mississippi, there were to be found occa- 
sional houses that were well built and well furnished, 
and surrounded by pleasant grounds, fairly well 
kept; houses to which the owners had brought their 
stores of silver, and linen and heavy, old-fashioned 
furniture from their homes in the Eastern States. 
But by far the greatest number of these fine houses, 
and the largest class of gentry to dwell in them, 
were in Kentucky. Not only were Lexington and 
Louisville important towns, but Danville, the first 
capital of Kentucky, also possessed importance, and, 
indeed, had been the first of the Western towns to 



Kentiickians and Bordennen 215 

develop an active and distinctive social and political 
life. It was in Danville that, in the years immediately 
preceding Kentucky's admission as a State, the Politi- 
cal Club met. The membership of this club included 
many of the leaders of Kentucky's intellectual life, 
and the records of its debates show the keenness with 
which they watched the course of social and political 
development not only in Kentucky but in the United 
States. They were men of good intelligence and 
trained minds, and their meetings and debates un- 
doubtedly had a stimulating effect upon Kentucky 
life, though they were tainted, as were a very large 
number of the leading men of the same stamp else- 
where throughout the country, and with the doctrin- 
aire political notions common among those who fol- 
lowed the French political theorists of the day. 

Of the gentry many were lawyers, and the law 
led naturally to political life; but even among the 
gentry the typical man was still emphatically the big 
landowner. The leaders of Kentucky life were men 
who owned large estates, on which they lived in their 
great roomy houses. 

In many ways the life of the Kentuckians was al- 
most like that of the Virginia gentry, though it had 
peculiar features of its own. Judged by Puritan 
standards, it seemed free enough; and it is rather 
curious to find Virginia fathers anxious to send their 
sons out to Kentucky so that they could get away 
from what they termed "the constant round of dissi- 
pation, the scenes of idleness, which boys are per- 
petually engaged in" in Virginia. One Virginia gen- 
tleman of note, in writing to a prominent Kentuckian 
to whom he wished to send his son, dwelt upon his 
desire to get him away from a place where boys of 
his age spent most of the time galloping wherever 
they wished, mounted on blooded horses. Kentucky 



21 6 Old Ken lucky 

hardly seemed a place to which a parent would send 
a son if he wished him to avoid the temptations of 
horseflesh; but this particular Virginian at least 
tried to provide against this, as he informed his cor- 
respondent that he should send his son out to Ken- 
tucky mounted on an "indifferent nag," which was 
to be used only as a means of locomotion for the 
journey, and was then immediately to be sold. 

The gentry strove hard to secure a good education 
for their children, and in Kentucky, as in Tennessee, 
made every effort to bring about the building of 
academies where their boys and girls could be well 
taught. If this was not possible, they strove to find 
some teacher capable of taking a class to which he 
could teach Latin and mathematics; a teacher who 
should also "prepare his pupils for becoming useful 
members of society and patriotic citizens." Where 
possible the leading families sent their sons to some 
Eastern college, Princeton being naturally the fa- 
vorite institution of learning with people who dwelt 
in communities where the Presbyterians took the lead 
in social standing and cultivation. 

The whole West owes an immense debt to the 
hard-working frontier preachers, sometimes Presby- 
terian, generally Methodist or Baptist, who so gladly 
gave their lives to their labors and who struggled 
with such fiery zeal for the moral well-being of the 
communities to which they penetrated. Wherever 
there was a group of log cabins, thither some Metho- 
dist circuit-rider made his way or there some Baptist 
preacher took up his abode. I'heir prejudices and 
narrow dislikes, their raw vanity and sullen distrust 
of all who were better schooled than they, count for 
little when weighed against their intense earnestness 
and heroic self-sacrifice. They proved their truth by 
their endeavor. They yielded scores of martrys, 



Kent itcki cms and Bordermen 217 

nameless and unknown men who perished at the 
hands of the savages, or by sickness or in flood 
or storm. They had to face no little danger 
from the white inhabitants themselves. In some 
of the communities most of the men might 
heartily support them, but in others where the 
vicious and lawless elements were in control, they 
were in constant danger of mobs. The godless and 
lawless people hated the religious with a bitter ha- 
tred, and gathered in great crowds to break up their 
meetings. On the other hand, those who had ex- 
perienced religion were no believers in the doctrine 
of non-resistance. At the core, they were thoroughly 
healthy men, and they fought as valiantly against 
the powers of evil in matters physical as in matters 
moral. Some of the successful frontier preachers 
were men of weak frame, whose intensity of convic- 
tion and ferv^or of religious belief supplied the lack 
of bodily powers; but as a rule the preacher who 
did most was a stalwart man, as strong in body as in 
faith. One of the continually recurring incidents in 
the biographies of the famous frontier preachers is 
that of some particularly hardened sinner who was 
never converted until, tempted to assault the preacher 
of the Word, he was soundly thrashed by the latter 
and his eyes thereby rudely opened through his sense 
of physical shortcoming to an appreciation of his 
moral iniquity. 

A distinctive type of character was developed west 
of the Alleghanies, and for the first generations the 
typical representatives of this Western type were 
to be found in Kentucky and Tennessee. 



CHAPTER XITI 

KENTUCKY DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

By Champ Clark 

General William Tecumseh Sherman once said, 
"War is hell!" Those who lived in the Border 
States during our civil war and who are old enough 
to remember the tragic events of that bloody but 
heroic epoch in our annals will with one accord in- 
dorse his idea, if not his sulphurous language. 

It was easy to be a Union man in Massachusetts. 
It was not profitable to be anything else. It was 
easy to be a Confederate in South Carolina. It was 
not safe to be anything else. But in Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, and the other Border States, it was perilous to 
be the one thing or the other. Indeed, it was danger- 
ous to be neither and to sit on the fence. 

I was a child when Sumter was fired on, living in 
Washington County, Kentucky. I remember an old 
fellow from whom the Union raiders took one horse 
and the Confederate raiders another. So when a 
third party of soldiers met him in the road and in- 
quired whether he were a Union man or a rebel, be- 
ing dubious as to their army affiliations, he answered 
diplomatically, "I am neither one nor the other and 
very little of that," and thereby lost his third and 
last horse to Confederates disguised in blue uniforms. 

The Kentuckians are a peculiar people — the most 
hospitable, the most emotional, the kindest hearted 
under the sun; but they are bom warriors. A gen- 
uine son of "the Dark and Bloody Ground" is in his 
normal condition only when fighting. It seems to 
me that somebody must have sown that rich land 



Kentucky During the Civil War 219 

with dragon's teeth in the early days. To use a sen- 
tence indigenous to the soil, "A Kentuckian will fight 
at the drop of a hat and drop it himself." So the 
war was his golden opportunity. He went to death 
as to a festival. Nearly ev^ery able-bodied man in 
the State — and a great many not able-bodied — not 
only of military age, but of any age, young enough 
or old enough to squeeze in, took up arms on one 
side or the other and sometimes on both. 

Neighbor against neighbor, father against son, 
brother against brother, slave against master, and 
frequently wife against husband; the fierce conten- 
tion entered even into theology, rent congregations 
in twain, severed the ties of blood, and blotted out 
the friendships of a life time. 

Men who were born and reared on adjoining 
farms, who had attended the same schools, played 
games, courted the same girls, cianced in the same 
sets, belonged to the same lodges, and worshiped in 
the same churches, suddenly went gunning for each 
other as remorselessly as red Indians — only they had 
a clearer vision and a surer aim. From the mouth 
of the Big Sandy to the mouth of the Tennessee, 
there was not a square mile in which some awful act 
of violence did not take place. 

Kentucky has always been celebrated for and 
cursed by its bloody feuds — feuds which cause the 
Italian vendetta to appear a holiday performance 
in comparison. Of course the war was the evening- 
up time, and many a man became a violent Unionist 
because the ancient enemies of his house were South- 
ern sympathizers, and vice versa. Some of them 
could have given pointers to Fra Diavolo' himself. 

As all the e\'il passions of men were aroused and 
all restraints of propriety as well as all fear of law 
were removed, cvei-y latent tendency toward crime 



220 Old Kentucky 

was warmed into life. The land swarmed with cut- 
throats, robbers, thieves, firebugs, and malefactors of 
every degree and kind, who' preyed upon the old, the 
infirm, the helpless, and committed thousands of 
brutal and heinous crimes — in the name of the 
Union or the Southern Confederacy. 

I witnessed only one battle during the civil war. 
A line in Gen. Basil W. Duke's entertaining book, 
"Morgan's Cavalry," is all that is vouchsafed to 
it in the literature of the war; but surely it was the 
most astounding martial caper ever cut since Nimrod 
invented the military art, and it fully illustrates the 
Kentuckian's inherent and ineradicable love of fight- 
ing. 

I saw seven home guards charge the whole of 
Morgan's Cavalry — the very flower of Kentucky 
chivalry. 1 was working as a farm-hand for one 
John Call, who was the proud owner of several fine 
horses of the famous "copper-bottom" breed. Mor- 
gan had, perhaps, as good an eye for a "saddler" as 
was ever set in a human head, and during those 
troublous days his mind was sadly mixed up on the 
meum and tuum when it came to equines — a remark 
applicable to many others besides Morgan, on both 
sides at that. 

Call, hearing that Morgan was coming, and know- 
ing his penchant for the noblest of quadrupeds, or- 
dered me to mount "in hot haste" and "take the 
horses to the woods." Just as I had climbed upon a 
magnificent chestnut sorrel, fit for a king's charger, 
and was rounding up the others, I looked up, and in 
the level rays of the setting summer sun saw Mor- 
gan's cavalry in "all the pride, pomp, and circum- 
stance of glorious war" riding up the broad gravel 
road on the backbone of a long, high ridge, half a 
mile to the south. Fascinated by the glittering array, 



Kentucky During the Civil War 221 

boylikc, T forgot Call and the peril of the horses and 
watched the gay cavalcade. 

Suddenly I saw seven horsemen emerge from the 
little village of Mackville and ride furiously down 
the turnpike to within easy pistol range of the Con- 
federates and open fire. I could hear the crack of 
the revolvers and see the flash and smoke, and when 
Morgan's advance guard fell back on the main body, 
I observ'ed that one riderless horse went back with 
them and that only six home guards rode back to 
Mackville in lieu of the seven who had ridden forth 
to battle. 

Morgan's command halted, deployed in battle 
line, and rode slowly up the hill, while I rode a great 
deal faster to the woods. 

The home guards had shot one man out of his 
saddle and captured him, and Morgan had captured 
one of them. Next morning the home guards, from 
their forest fastness, sent in a flag of truce and regu- 
larly negotiated an exchange of prisoners according 
to the rules in such cases made and provided. Of 
course Morgan would have paid no attention to the 
seven men, but he supposed that even his own native 
Kentucky never nurtured seven dare-devils so reckless 
as to do a thing like that unless they had an army 
back of them. 

I have often thought of that matchless deed of 
daring, and can say in the language of the French- 
man who witnessed the charge of the Light Brigade 
at Balaklava: "It is magnificent, but not war." 

Years afterward one of the seven was sending his 
children to school to me. After I became well ac- 
quainted with him, one day I said to him, "Gibson, 
I have always wanted to know what made you seven 
fellows charge Morgan." "Oh," he replied, "we 
were all full of fighting whiskey" — an explanation 



222 Old Kentucky 

which explained not only that fight but thousands 
more. 

If that splendid feat of arms had been performed 
in New England by New Englanders, the world 
could scarcely contain the books which would have 
been written about it. It would have been chronicled 
in history and chanted in song as an inexhaustible 
theme. 

It is generally assumed by the wiseacres who write 
the histories that in the Border States the old, 
wealthy, prominent slave-holding families all ad- 
hered to the Confederacy, and that only the poor, the 
obscure natives and the immigrants from the North 
stood by the old flag. This is a serious mistake. 
The great historic dominant family connections di- 
vided, thereby making confusion worse confounded. 
Prominent people wore the Confederate gray. 
Others just as prominent wore the Union blue. 

Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge, the great theologian, 
with a decided and incurable bias for politics, who 
presided over the Republican National Convention 
of 1864, which nominated Abraham Lincoln and An- 
drew Johnson, was a stanch Union man. Two of 
his sons achieved high rank in the Confederate 
armies and two others in the Union armies. 

His illustrious cousin, John C. Breckinridge, re- 
signed his seat in the United States Senate to be- 
come a lieutenant-general in the Southern army, while 
James S. Jackson, Representative from the Green 
River district, resigned his seat in the House to be- 
come a brigadier in the Union army, and died a 
hero's death, leading his division on the hard-fought 
field of Perryville. 

Rodger Hanson, the eloquent, became a Confed- 
erate general and fell on the field of his glory at 



Kentucky During the Ch-il Jl^ar 223 

Stone River, while his brother won distinction on 
the other side as general of brigade. 

John J. Crittenden — the best beloved of Ken- 
tucky statesmen — unflinchingly stood by the Union, 
while one of his sons wore the double stars of a 
Union major-general, another achieving similar rank 
in the Confederate army. 

The Henr}^ Clay branch of the great Clay family 
espoused the Confederate cause, while the Cassius 
M. Clay branch fought with the traditional courage 
of the race for the solidarity of the Union. 

John Marshall Harlan — now Mr. Justice Harlan, 
of the Supreme Court, — with a pedigree running 
back to the cavaliers of Jamestown, — won renown 
on many a bloody field, fighting under "Old Pap" 
Thomas — "the Rock of Chickamauga." 

In the same army were Lovell H. Rosseau, the 
ideal soldier and princely gentleman, and Benjamin 
H. Bristow, who missed the Presidency only by a 
scratch and through lack of organization of his 
forces. 

I had two schoolmates, older than myself, named 
Dickinson, beardless boys and brothers. One of them 
enlisted with Morgan as a private and the other in 
brave old Frank Wol ford's famous First Kentucky 
Union Cavalry. The strange fortunes of civil war 
brought these brothers face to face in the great In- 
diana-Ohio raid, — 'the greatest ride ever taken since 
horses were first broken to bit and rein, — and when 
Morgan was captured, the Confederate Dickinson 
surrendered to his Union brother. 

The only instance on record during the entire war 
of one field officer killing another in battle was at 
Mill Spring, when Gen. Speed Smith Fry, of Ken- 
tuck3% a Union soldier, shot and killed General Zolli- 
coffer, commanding a brigade of Tennessee Confed- 



2 24 Old Kentucky 

erates. The only parallel to this sanguinary per- 
formance in all our military annals was the killing 
of Tecumseh, at the battle of the river Thames, by 
Col. Richard M. Johnson, another Kentuckian, pop- 
ularly called "Old Dick." 

Ed. Porter Thompson, of Kentucky, a Confeder- 
ate captain, hobbled into the battle of Murfreesboro 
on his crutches, and for two days fought side by 
side with those possessing the soundest and most stal- 
wart legs, thereby rivaling the far-resounding feats 
of Charles XII of Sweden at Pultowa and Gen. Jo- 
seph Wheeler at Santiago of being carried into battle 
upon a stretcher. 

AN ARITHMETIC CLASS 

When the war began I was eleven years old and a 
member of a remarkable arithmetic class. I was 
quick in mathematics. A strolling English phre- 
nologist, Charles R. Whittern, came into the Glenn's 
Creek neighborhood down in Washington County, 
where I then lived, and established a school. I love 
to think of him, and I cherish his memory most 
gratefully because he was the best country school- 
teacher that ever instructed me. If I should become 
rich I would erect a handsome monument to his 
memory. He built up a reputation for teaching 
arithmetic. There were three grown men in that 
class. I was a little chap and they made a pet of me. 
Two of these men led extraordinary careers "in the 
days that tried men's soul's" from '6i to '65. One 
of them, named Orville Bush Young, was thirty 
years old at least. When hostilities began he studied 
for, three or four months to determine whether it was 
his duty to enlist in the Union Army or to go to 
Bacon College at Harrodsburg and prepare himself 



Ken lucky During the Civil War 225 

to become a minister of the gospel in the Christian 
Church, vulgarly called the "Campbellite" Church. 
He studied the matter conscientiously. I know he 
did. God never made a better man. He enlisted in 
Company F, Capt. Frank Hill, Tenth Kentucky In- 
fantry, commanded by Col. John Marshall Harlan, 
now Mr. Justice John Marshall Harlan, of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. That was after 
Morgan Rousseau and Wolford had taken out the 
daredevils who were determined to get in early. It 
was after William H. Seward's optimistic prophecy 
of a ninety days' picnic was exploded and when all 
men knew that it was to be a long and terrible war. 

When Young went to Lebanon to enlist. Squire 
Land, whose sister-in-law Young was to marry if he 
survived the war, went along with him to bring the 
horses back. Land got drunk and when Young held 
up his hand to be sworn in Land held up his also and 
was sworn in unbeknownst to himself. When he 
sobered up next morning and discovered his predica- 
ment he said, "I will do anything I am ordered to 
except charge breastworks. That's an inhuman per- 
formance and I will not do it." 

After more than two years' service they were or- 
dered for the first time to charge breastworks — in 
front of Jonesburg, near Atlanta. True to his word, 
Land, who up to that time had made a good soldier, 
went as hard as he could clatter to the rear, while 
Young, as color-bearer, for his regiment, was the 
first man to place the Stars and Stripes on the Con- 
federate breastworks. General Sherman sent for 
him and offered him a captaincy for that exploit, but 
he declined it, saying simply that he did not enter the 
army to get an oflice. Congress awarded him a gold 
medal. Bush Young deserv^es to rank with Havelock 
as a Christian soldier. 

IS 



226 Old Kentucky 

Another member of that arithmetic class was 
Isaiah Coulter — "Big Zay" as he was called, to dis- 
tinguish him from others of the name. Kentucky 
nev^er produced a finer physical man. He was about 
twenty years old, stood six feet six in his stockings, 
was straight as an arrow, with dark skin, magnificent 
black eyes, and abundant hair as black as a raven's 
wing. He looked like an Indian chief. I have a 
tender recollection of him, for he was very good to 
me, and a man who is good to a boy is not a bad man. 
He belonged to "Sue Munday's Guerrillas" as they 
are popularly called. He loved that species of ir- 
regular warfare. There were about fift}' in his com- 
pany. Whenever the Federals caught one of Sue 
Munday's men they hanged him. 

Finally, when Quantrill was killed at Shelbyville, 
"Big Zay" was shot clear through the body with a 
Minie ball. Knowing that it was sure death if he 
surrendered, he made one of his men thrust a silk 
handkerchief through his body with a ramrod and 
tie knots at both ends to staunch the flow of blood. 
Then mounting his thoroughbred horse he rode 
thirty miles into Anderson County to the house of an 
aunt; but he died of that wound. 

The third fully grown young man who was a 
member of that arithmetic class was Nimrod Hen- 
derson, who served four years in the Fourth Ken- 
tucky Union Infanti-y, and went scathless through 
the Red River expedition with Banks, to be nearly 
killed in a saw mill long after the return of peace. 

Nothing can better illustrate the awful situation 
in Kentucky than the history of that arithmetic class. 

STUMP SPEAKERS IN KENTUCKY 

The first candidate for Congress that I ever saw 
was Aaron Harding, of Greensburg. He served 



Kentucky Dining ihc Civil JVar 227 

two or three terms. He was a lame man, and during 
a two hours' speech at Mackville I am certain that 
he never mov^ed his heels two inches. I marveled 
then that he could stand so still and talk so long and 
I wonder at It yet. 

The first candidate for Governor that I ever saw 
and heard was Col. Thos. E. Bramlette, who was 
elected in 1863. Judge Harlan was elected At- 
torney-General on the same ticket with him. They 
both spoke at Mackville on a fine October day in 
Heni-y Isham's sugar grove. Bramlette was a large, 
handsome man, the typical Kentuckian. ITe was 
about fifty years old, and wore the first pair of the 
sort of eye-glasses one hooks upon the nose. He 
was a widower and when he put on his glasses he 
looked the audience over and began by saying, "I 
hope the ladies will not think m.y heart as old as my 
eyes are" — a fine mot, which is all I remember of 
that speech. 

Mr. Justice Harlan was then not quite thirty, and 
was in the flower of his years. He was a tall, strap- 
ping, sinewy young man, blonde as any lily, and en- 
joyed life to its full. His voice had great carrying 
power, and he made the welkin ring in that autumn 
day of the long ago. I was only a chunk of a boy, 
but T could discern that Harlan was a greater man 
than Bramlette, and I couldn't understand why he 
was not running for the high office, T propounded 
that query that night to my father, a man of rare 
sense, who, while he was never a candidate for an 
office in his life, was always a most enthusiastic 
amateur politician. In kindliest way he explained to 
me the availability^ of candidates, which Avas my first 
lesson in practical politics; but I look back yet with 
fond regret to my lost theory of "the fittest." 

Gen. John Cabell Breckinridge was the handsom- 



2 28 Old Kentucky 

est man I ever saw or ever expect to sec. He was one 
of my father's Democratic idols. I, with the curiosity 
of a child, which enables a child to learn, once 
asked what sort of a man Breckinridge was. "Oh! 
he has a two-and-a-half-story head," was his graphic 
description, which was literally true. When he re- 
turned from his European exile I was a student at 
Kentucky University and heard him return thanks to 
his neighbors and friends for the enthusiastic recep- 
tion which they gave him. With enraptured eyes I 
gazed upon that majestic form and with eager ears 
drank in his eloquence. One sentence out of that 
speech I shall never forget. In talking of himself, 
his past and future, he said, "Politically, I am an 
extinct volcano!" In very truth he had 

"The front of Jove himself, 
An eye like Mars to threaten and command, 
A stature like the herald Mercury 
New lighted on a Heaven-kissing hill. 
A combination and a form indeed 
Where every god did seem to set his seal 
To give the world assurance of a man." 



CHAPTER XIV 

KENTUCKY, HER HISTORY AND HER PEOPLE 

By Reuben T. Durrett 

For one hundred and eighty-five years after the 
first settlement at Jamestown, Kentucky was a part of 
Virginia, and during four-fifths of this long period 
was an unknown land. The Virginians along the 
Atlantic slope showed no early disposition to settle 
beyond the mountains that walled them in on the 
west. They erected their manor houses and built 
their tobacco barns on the rich lands of rivers that 
flowed from the mountains to the sea, and were con- 
tent. What they had to sell the ocean would bear 
to foreign parts, and what they wanted to buy the 
same ocean would bring to their doors. There were 
no known inducements in the unknown lands beyond 
the mountains to induce them to the dangers and the 
hardships of a wilderness filled w'ith wild animals 
and still wilder savages. 

But whether the Virginians would go to the dis- 
covery of Kentucky or not, the country was so lo'- 
cated that to remain unknown was impossible. The 
great Mississippi and the beautiful Ohio were upon 
Its borders for hundreds of miles, while their tribu- 
taries penetrated thousands of miles within. Upon 
these rivers hunters and traders and adventurers 
were to paddle their canoes in spite of dangers, and 
the fair land of Kentucky could not Indefinitely escape 
their eyes. 

VIEW OF PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY 

From the summit of the Appalachian Mountains 
on the east, declivities lead down two thousand feet 



230 Old Kentucky 

to a plateau that gracefully undulates for five hun- 
dred miles to the margins of the Ohio and the 
Mississippi rivers on the west. Descending through 
deep cut channels from their mountain springs, the 
Sandy, the Licking, the Kentucky, the Salt, the 
Green, and the Cumberland rivers roll their navi- 
gable waters for hundreds of miles through soil as 
exuberant as the famous delta of the Nile. Over 
an area that millions might inhabit, of mountain and 
hill and plain and valley, stands a dark forest of 
oak and beech and ash and hickory and walnut and 
cherry and maple and sycamore and linden and cedar 
and pine, with lofty poplars towering above like 
hoary sentinels of the centuries that have marked 
their growth. Here and there, where the trees of 
the forest cast not their shadow, the cane and the 
clover and the rye and the blue-grass cover the soil 
like emerald isles in the forest seas. Toward the 
sunset, between the Salt and the Green rivers, spreads 
out for miles a treeless land covered with a forest of 
herbage, on which countless buffalo and deer forever 
feed. The woods are full of wild animals, the 
rivers swarm with endless varieties of fish, and the 
air is darkened with flocks of birds. From out the 
earth burst springs whose waters, warmed by the 
summer's sun, whiten their channels with salt, and 
deep down beneath the surface are mysterious caverns 
cut out by subterranean streams, in which are de- 
posited beds of saltpeter. Beneath the hills and 
mountains are strata of coal and beds of iron and 
quarries of stone, and over all hangs a bright sky 
tempered by genial airs. As if to add to the pic- 
turesqueness of the scene, there are numerous 
mounds, which were reared in the distant past by a 
long-ago people who' had become mighty in the land 
and passed away without leaving a histoiy, a tradi- 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 231 

tion, or a name. On the mountain sides, the rhodo- 
dendron and the Calmia latifolia display their charm- 
ing blossoms; in the valleys, the magnolia contrasts 
the snow of its huge corolla with the scarlet of the 
delicate cardinal flower; and everywhere on the hills 
and plains wild flowers of infinite form and color 
lend enchantment to the view. It is "a land of 
brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that sprmg 
out of the valleys and hills." ^ 

HOW THE PIONEERS LIVED 

The first inhabitants of Kentucky, on account of 
the hostility of the Indians, lived in what were called 
forts. These structures had little in common with 
those massive piles of stone and earth from which 
thunder missiles of destmction in modern times. 
They were simply rows of the conventional log 
cabins of the day, built on four sides of a square 
parallelogram, which remained as a court or open 
space, serving as a play-ground, a muster-field, a cor- 
ral for domestic animals, and a storehouse for imple- 
ments. The cabins which formed the fort's walls 
were dwelling-houses for the people, and contained 
the i-udest conveniences of life. The bedstead con- 
sisted of forks driven in the dirt floor, through the 
prongs of which poles extended to cracks in the wall, 
and over which buffalo skins were spread for a mat- 
tress and bear skins for a covering. The dining- 
table was a broad puncheon hewn smooth with an 
adze, and set on four legs made of sticks inserted in 
auger holes at the comers. The chairs were three- 
legged stools made in the same way, and the table 
furniture consisted of wooden plates, trays, noggins, 
bowls, and trenchers, usually turned out of buckeye. 
A few tin cups and pewter plates and delf cups and 



232 Old Kentucky 

saucers and two-pronged Iron forks and pewter 
spoons were luxuries brought from the old country, 
and only found upon the tables of the few who could 
afford them. The fireplace occupied nearly one whole 
side of the house; the window was a hole covered 
with paper saturated with bear's grease, and the door 
an opening over which hung a buffalo skin. Near 
the door hung the long-barreled flint-lock rifle on the 
prongs of a buck's horns pinned to the wall, and 
from which place it was never absent except when in 
use. 

In these confined cabins whole families occupied a 
single room. Here the women hackled the wild 
nettle, carded the buffalo wool, spun the thread, wove 
the cloth and made the clothes. The men wore 
buckskin hunting-shirts, trousers, and moccasins, and 
the women linsey gowns in winter and linen in sum- 
mer. If there was a broadcloth coat or a calico 
dress, it came from the old settlements, and was only 
worn on rare occasions. 

Such a life had its pains, but it also had its pleas- 
ures. Of evenings and rainy days, the fiddle was 
heard, and the merry old Virginia reel danced by 
both young and old. A marriage, that sometimes 
united a boy of sixteen to a girl of fourteen, was an 
occasion of great merriment, and brought out the 
whole fort. When an itinerant preacher came 
along, and favored them with a sennon two or three 
hours in length, it was also a great occasion. A 
young man had some difficulty in making his sweet- 
heart understand all he had to say in a small room 
filled by her parents and brothers and sisters, but on 
essential points it was easy to remove the discussion 
to the open space. The shooting-match, the foot- 
race, wrestling, jumping, boxing, and, it may be 
added, fighting, afforded amusement in the open 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 233 

space, and blindfolded and hide-and-seek, and qullt- 
ings, knittings, and candy-pullings made the little 
cabins merry on many occasions. The corn-field 
and the vegetable garden were cultivated within 
range of the rifles of the fort, and sentinels were on 
guard while the work was being done. 

now THE INDIANS RETARDED THE SETTLEMENTS 

The great obstacles to the rapid population of the 
country were the Indians. They lurked in the woods 
and confined the settlers to the forts. They did not 
occupy the soil, but lived to the north and the 
south and the west, and kept Kentucky for a hunting- 
ground. They crossed the Ohio in small parties, 
and, like thieves in the night, crept stealthily upon 
their victims and shot them down or tomahawked 
them unawares. More people were killed in this 
desultory way than in regular battles. In 1790 
Judge Innes wrote to the Secretary of War that dur- 
ing the seven years he had lived in Kentucky the In- 
dians had killed one thousand five hundred souls, 
stolen twenty thousand horses, and carried off prop- 
erty to the value of fifteen thousand pounds sterling. 
If to this fearful number we add all the deaths pre- 
vious to 1783 and subsequent to 1790, the time 
covered by Judge Innes's estimate. In battle and by 
murder, we shall have a terrible summary. Not less 
than three thousand six hundred men, women and 
children fell at the hands of the savages in Kentucky 
before the final victory over them by General Wayne 
in 1794. It may be doubted whether the Indians 
would not have been less formidable If they had lived 
In Kentucky. They would then have been extermin- 
ated by the pioneers, instead of being crippled In their 
raids and left to recover and return. 



234 Old Kentucky 

PIONEER WOMEN 

Among all the sufferers at the hands of the Indians, 
none bore heavier sorrows and received less credit for 
them than the pioneer women. Boone and Kenton 
and other heroes, as they deserved, figured largely 
in history and biography. But who has heard of 
the many brave women who have resisted or suc- 
cumbed to the tomahawk and the scalping knife of 
the savages? While their husbands fired from the 
loop-holes of the forts upon the besieging enemy, 
their wives molded the bullets with which their guns 
were loaded. They guarded the forts while the men 
were fighting the Indians or hunting the game. 
When death took a pioneer from his toils, it was the 
women who wrapped him in his coarse shroud and 
laid him In his rough coffin and wetted his obscure 
grave with their tears. They were the doctors of the 
times, and while their remedies for wounds and dis- 
eases seem strange to modern science, yet their catnip 
tea and soothing herbs and elder salve were thought 
to work wonderful cures in their day. From their 
home in the old settlements they brought religious 
feelings, and when the itinerant preacher turned the 
hour-glass for the second or third time and still went 
on with his mighty lungs and voice, the women never 
grew weary of him, but heard the words of the good 
man to the end, and remembered them. Collectively 
and individually, they showed a courage on trying 
occasions of which men might well be proud 

When the cabins of Jesse and Hosea Cook, near 
Frankfort, were taken by the Indians and both the 
Cooks killed, their brave widows showed a courage 
which has few parallels in the whole course of human 
action. The Indians, having failed to force the 
strong door which shut them out from the two 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 235 

women and their children, made attempts to burn 
the house. They ascended to the roof and repeatedly 
applied the torch, which was extinguished by the 
women, first with water, while it lasted, then with 
broken eggs, and finally with the blood-saturated 
clothing of their dead husbands lying on the floor. 

Finally, and to the great relief of long vexed and 
sorely tried humanity, the tenth and last convention 
met at Danville, April 2, 1792, and in accordance 
with the resolutions of the previous convention and 
the act of Virginia of December 18, 1789, authoriz- 
ing the separation, and the act of Congress of 
February 4, 1791, admitting Kentucky into the 
Union, to take effect June i, 1792, proceeded to make 
a constitution for the new State. Samuel McDowell, 
who had been the president of all the preceding con- 
ventions, except two, was made the president, and 
Thomas Todd, who had been the clerk of all the 
others, was made the clerk of this. Five members 
appeared from each of the nine counties then in the 
State, making the whole number of delegates forty- 
five. 

There were six ministers of the gospel in this con- 
vention, the convention that framed the constitution, 
and when the vote was taken upon the pro-slavery 
clause every one of them voted against it. They 
were Revs. John Bailey, Benedict Swope, Charles 
Kavenaugh, George Smith, James Crawford, and 
James Garrard, Another minister, David Rice, had 
been elected to the convention, but resigned before 
any of the principles of the constitution came to vote. 
He was, however, succeeded by Harry Innes, who 
voted against the pro-slavery clause, just as Minister 
Rice would have voted if he had been there. 

The constitution made by these men has long since 
ceased to be binding. It nevertheless has a historic 



236 Old Kentucky 

interest, because it was the fundamental law with 
which our commonwealth began its life. Its author, 
George Nicholas, from his associations with the 
makers of the Constitution of the United States, gave 
it a decidedly Federal cast. Our Governor and our 
Senators were trammeled with the cumbrous ma- 
chinery of electors, and it gave to the Court of Ap- 
peals original jurisdiction in land suits; but with all 
its faults, our constitution of 1792 was a vast im- 
provement upon many of its written and unwritten 
contemporaries. It placed all religions upon an 
equal footing. It forbade commerce in slaves, and 
provided for their emancipation by the legislature. 
It secured the freedom of the press. It gave to all 
free men the right to vote without property qualifi- 
cations. It mitigated the horrors of imprisonment 
for debt. It made all citizens equal before the law. 
It lodged in the people all primal and ultimate 
sovereignty, and opened the great highway of 
progress to all men alike. 

CONDITION OF KENTUCKY WHEN SHE BEGAN STATE- 

HOOD 

The condition of Kentucky when it first became an 
independent State was very different from what we 
now see it. With the exception of the spots of 
cleared land around the villages and forts, and the 
few houses outside of them, the whole country was 
covered by the original forest, in which lurked In- 
dians and bears and wolves and panthers and wild- 
cats. All land travel was over dirt roads, full of dust 
in the summer and deep in mud in the winter. One of 
these roads led from Cumberland Gap through Crab 
Orchard, Danville, Bardstown, and Bullitt's Lick to 
Louisville. Another crossed the Big Sandy at the 
forks, and leading through Morgan's and Strode's 



Kentucky, II cr History and Her People 237 

stations to Lexington, passed on through Frankfort 
and Drennon's Lick to Louisville. A third led from 
Maysville by the Lower Blue Lick and Paris to Lex- 
ington; a fourth from the mouth of the Licking to 
Lexington, and a fifth from Middle Tennessee to 
Danville. These main roads were passed over by all 
persons either coming into the State or going out 
from it. Cross-roads connecting with the main roads 
at various points formed the lines of internal and 
neighborhood communication. Some of them fol- 
lowed lines originally marked out by the buffalo, time 
out of mind before, and were broad enough for high- 
ways of commerce; but most of them were mere 
traces and bridle paths, which no one but a woods- 
man or acquaintance could follow. Across the 
streams were no bridges, and people passed them at 
shallow places called fords, or in rude flatboats or 
canoes used for ferries. The travel and trade upon 
the rivers were In canoes and flatboats, and barges 
and keels propelled by oars or sails. Only a few 
meadows or pastures had yet been prepared, but over 
broad areas were natural meadows, while cane brakes 
and wild clover fields and patches of pea vine and 
swards of blue-grass of natural growth were every- 
where to be seen. 

A hundred thousand inhabitants were scattered 
over the nine counties* into which the original Ken- 
tucky County had been divided, and most of them 
were still dwelling in villages and forts. The In- 
dians were yet in the land, and life was not safe out- 
side of fortified places. Only the year before the 

*These nine counties were: Jefferson, Fayette, and lincoln, the 
three counties into which Kentucky County had been subdivided in 
1780; Nelson, formed out of Jefferson in 1784; Bourbon, out of 
Fayette in 1785; Mercer and Madison, out of Lincoln in 1785; 
Mason, out of Bourbon in 1788; and Woodford, out of Faj'ette in 
1788. 



238 Old Kentucky 

savages had rallied in such strength as to surprise the 
army of General St. Clair and crush it with such 
slaughter as had not occurred since Braddock's de- 
feat on the Monongahela, or Todd's at Blue Licks. 
While the new government was being inaugurated, 
a large party of them entered the State, and almost in 
the shadow of the house in which the first legislature 
met, murdered citizens and stole property. Even as 
late as March 10, 1795, a number of citizens of 
Louisville and Jefferson County bound themselves by 
written contract to pay the sum set opposite their 
names for Indian scalps within their vicinity.* 

On the farms that had been opened near the forts 
the rudest kind of agriculture prevailed. The farmer 
broke up his ground with the wooden mold-board 
plow, and planted his corn and sowed his wheat with 
his hand. The grain was cut with a reap hook or 
cradle, and beaten out with the flail or by the feet of 
horses ridden over the straw with the heads on laid 
in a circle for this purpose. His flour was sifted 
through a coarse linen cloth, and his grain ground in 
the hand mill or beaten in the mortar. A few horse- 
mills and water-mills were in the country, but they 
were not generally used or accessible. His crop was 
cultivated with the hoe, and his carpenter's work 
done with the axe, the adze, and the auger. His flax 
was spun on the small wheel, his wool on the large 
wheel, and both woven on the hand-loom. 

The buffalo' and the deer were growing scarce, and 
the farmer was raising domestic animals for food. 
His cattle and sheep, however, were what are known 
as scrubs, and his horses of an inferior breed. His 
vegetable garden consisted of little more than cab- 
bages, pumpkins, turnips, beets, and peas. His cows 

* Original contract signed by the parties in the possession of 
R. T. Durrett. 



Kentucky, Ilcr Hislui y mid Ilcr People 239 

fed upon the cane, and gave rich and well-flavored 
milk, which, with the butter and curds and cheese 
which were made of it, were about the best food put 
upon the table. Whatever the table afforded, how- 
ever, was generously given to every comer, no matter 
at what hour he arrived, nor whence he came. Abun- 
dance of fish came from the streams, the woods af- 
forded squirrels and opossums, and the fields rab- 
bits and quails. 

The peach was about the only domestic fruit that 
was abundant, the apple tree not yet being old 
enough for full bearing. Wild fruits, however, were 
abundant. The persimmon, the grape, the papaw, 
the mulberry, the haw, the May apple, the black- 
berry, the wild strawberry and the wild goose plum 
were gathered and eaten by all, and so were the 
walnut, the hickory nut, and the chestnut. Brandy 
was distilled from the peach and wine fermented 
from the grape and beer from the persimmon, but as 
early as 1783 whiskey had been distilled from corn, 
and that was now in use either as mint julep or as 
grog or toddy. Those who could afford it had Ma- 
deira wine and Jamaica mm on their table, but the 
common drink was whiskey. 

The most important mechanics in the country were 
the blacksmiths, the carpenters, and the wheelwrights. 
They made pretty much ever^^thing that was made 
with such simple tools as the saw, the file, the jack- 
plane, the draw-knife, the axe, the adze, the auger, 
and the hammer. They were not particular about 
sticking to their trades, but each did what of the 
work of the other he could and something of what 
belonged to neither. They managed among them to 
make guns and furniture and implements, that be- 
longed to the trade of neither, and so altogether they 
met the wants of the community. 



240 Old Kentucky 

There was one printing establishment, and that 
was in the log cabin of John Bradford, at Lexington, 
whence was issued once a week the Kentucky Gazelle, 
which was begun August 11, 1787, on a half sheet 
of coarse paper nineteen inches long and ten wide. 
The paper was printed on a hand press, and it re- 
quired a whole day's hard work to run off an edition 
of five hundred. Not a book had yet been printed in 
the State, and not a pamphlet beyond the dignity 
of Bradford's Almanac. Only a few books had 
been brought Into the State, and they were unequally 
distributed. Such as they were, the religious char- 
acter predominated, and more copies of Bunyan's 
"Pilgrim's Progress," and Milton's "Paradise Lost," 
and Baxter's "Saint's Rest," and Fox's "Book of 
Martyrs" were to be seen than any other books. It 
is necessary to add, however, that some of our 
pioneers had upon their shelves the works of Paine, 
Rousseau, and Voltaire, 

There were schools in log houses in the stations 
and villages, and Transylvania Seminary was open at 
Lexington. But little beyond Dilworth's Spelling- 
book and Horton's Arithmetic was attempted at these 
schools; but in Transylvania Seminary, and such 
select schools as Craig's at Georgetown, and Priest- 
ley's at Bardstown, and Fry's in Mercer, and Finley's 
in Madison County, quite a high order of education 
for a new country might be obtained. 

The Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, the 
Methodists, and the Episcopalians were the leading 
religious denominations, and of these the Baptists 
were the most numerous. A Baptist church had left 
Spottsylvania County, Virginia, and come to Ken- 
tucky in a body, singing and praying and preaching 
and preserving church government through a wilder- 
ness of five hundred miles. No church edifice had 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 241 

yet arisen beyond the architecture of the log cabin. 
Most of the preaching was done in private houses or 
in the forts, but the rarity of the sermons made all 
denominations glad to hear one several hours in 
length, whether they agreed with its doctrines or 
not. 

The medical profession had not reached the high 
grade to which McDowell and Brashear and their 
successors afterward bore it, but such men as Freder- 
ick Ridgley were doing noble practice in Lexington 
and other parts of the State. Some of them made 
vain attempts to run out disease with the flow of 
blood from open veins, and used calomel until it 
produced a worse malady than. the one attempted to 
be removed; but their blood letting and mercuiy 
dosing were then the style. The doctor carried his 
drug-store in his saddle-bags, and compounded and 
put up his own prescriptions. He rode by day and 
by night, in sunshine and in storm, over a wide ex- 
tent of country and earned the fees he got, which 
were often paid in corn and meat and vegetables. 

No pioneer State ever presented a stronger bar 
than Kentucky. The lawyers of 1792 were men 
most of whom had been ruined by the Revolution- 
ary war, and who had come to Kentucky to provide 
for themselves and families. Some of them, like 
George Nicholas, Harr)^ Innes, George Muter, 
William Murray, Christopher Greenup, and James 
Hughes, had made fame in their native State, and 
the terribly intricate land titles they had to deal 
with made their legal learning acute, incisive and 
profound. He who familiarizes himself with the 
legal questions settled in the cases reported in 
Hughes and Hardin, and Snead and Bibb will not 
fail to conclude that the pioneer bar In Kentucky 
has had but few superiors in any land. 
16 



242 Old Kentucky 

There were no post-offices and no mall carriers. 
Letters had to be borne from place to place by pri- 
vate hands, and John Bradford had to provide 
carriers for his Kentucky Gazette. Almost every one 
who came into the State or went out of it, or went 
from one place to another within it, was the bearer 
of one or more letters. 

Travel had not yet reached the refinement of the 
stage coach. People went from place to place on 
horseback or afoot; and it was not unusual for the 
women of 1792 to ride a dozen or more miles on 
horseback, or to walk half as far to pay a social visit. 

In the principal towns and stations there were 
stores, in each of which all the articles sold were 
jumbled together. Nails and calico, axes and broad- 
cloth, delf-ware and silks, furniture and bonnets, 
lumber and hats, sugar and medicine, whiskey and 
books were sold over the same counter. The women 
of the country brought in their linen and linsey and 
jeans, and bartered them in the stores for tea and 
coffee and such other articles as they could not make 
at home; but the stores sold few things that could 
be produced at home by the husband or the wife. 

Males and females generally dressed in garments 
made of linen, linsey, or jeans woven at home. A 
few who could afford it wore broadcloths, silks, 
prints, calamancoes, durants, tammies, shalloons, or 
ratinels procured from the stores, and paid for them 
with tobacco and beef and pork and corn. 

But little money was in circulation, and barter was 
the almost universal medium of exchange. The 
Spanish dollar was about the only silver known, and 
this was cut with a hammer and chisel into halves 
and quarters and bits and picayunes for the conven- 
ience of change. Some old trappers who wanted sil- 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 243 

vcr for their beaver skins complained that the dol- 
lar was sometimes cut into five or six quarters. 

A few first-class farmers like Isaac Shelby had 
blooded horses and fine cattle and sheep and hogs 
on their farms, but they were exceptions. The long- 
snouted hog of the woods, the shabby cattle of the 
mountains, the Barbary sheep, and the ponies the 
Indians loved to steal were the kind usually found 
upon the farms. Game roosters for fighting were 
found in many places where all else were scrubs, and 
sometimes a fine race-horse imported from Virginia 
was seen among the miserable hacks. 

WHAT A CENTURY HAS ACCOMPLISHED 

Such was the condition of Kentucky when she 
began her career as an independent State one hun- 
dred years ago, and three hundred years after the 
discovery of Columbus. The beginning of her state- 
hood on the third centennial anniversary of the dis- 
covery of America is a coincidence that it is not likely 
her sons will ever forget. Through all time to 
come the two events will move along the same path- 
way of centuries, separated only by the difference of 
time bebveen the discovery of the one and the inde- 
pendence of the other. 

Standing as we do at the favored terminus of a 
hundred years of marvelous progress, our glad eyes 
rest upon the evidences of advancement in our own 
State that could not have been anticipated by the 
Avisest. Could Clark and Shelby arise from their 
hallowed graves to-day and look upon their country, 
they would know it not. The same blue sky, with its 
bright sun by day and its pale moon by night, is above 
us. The same broad land, with its rich soil and 
navigable rivers, is beneath us. The same healthful 
climate wraps us around and imparts its enlivening 



244 Old Kentucky 

summer breezes and its chastening winter winds. All 
else, how changed ! 

The great forest which cast its dark shadow upon 
the land has passed away, and with it the wild beasts 
and wilder savages that infested it. In its stead we 
behold immense fields of grain and pastures of grass, 
sporting with the consenting breezes like ocean waves 
toying with the passing winds. Vast areas of de- 
nuded forest now covered with growing hemp and 
tobacco remind us of the trying days when the 
haughty Spaniard, fortified upon the shores of the 
Mississippi, shut out our products from the markets 
of the world. The roads first marked out by the 
sagacious buffalo, and afterward adopted by the 
pioneer, with their summer's dust and their winter's 
mud, have given place to macadam thoroughfares 
and to railroads on which the iron horse, unconscious 
of the burden of a thousand steeds behind him, 
bounds over hills, darts through mountains, springs 
across rivers, and speeds along plains with the ve- 
locity of the eagle's flight. From our matchless 
rivers have disappeared the pirogue, the canoe, the 
keel, and the barge propelled by sluggish oars and 
sails, and in their places we have those leviathans 
of omnipotent steam which glide along with their 
immeasurable cargoes as if the opposing winds and 
currents were but toys to allure them to their play. 
The broad prairies and the evergreen canebrakes, on 
which the buffalo and the deer grew fat for the food 
of man, are seen no more, and in their places the 
meadows of timothy and the pastures of blue-grass 
are the Eden of the Durhams and the Holsteins, of 
the Southdowns and the Cotswolds. Orchards and 
vineyards and gardens and nurseries surround happy 
mansions on the hills and in the valleys and along 
the plains where the wild roots grew. The whole 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 245 

face of the country has been changed as if touched 
by the magician's wand, and the wilderness has 
been made to blossom as the rose. 

Two millions of inhabitants are spread over the 
one hundred and twenty counties into which the 
State has been divided, showing an average increase 
of nineteen thousand souls for every year of the 
century closed in 1892. It is an intelHgent, indus- 
trious, and progressive population, engaged in most 
of the commendable pursuits of civilization. They 
have opened agricultural and grazing and mineral 
lands, and erected manufactories, the surplus prod- 
ucts of which go to enrich the markets of the world. 
They have built cities in different parts of the land, 
a single one of which has double the population and 
many times the wealth of the entire State when its 
independence began. 

While reaching this increase of population, they 
have made mistakes in legislation, as all civilized 
peoples have done in every age and clime. They 
blundered in finance, in 18 18, when they created 
forty independent banks, and turned them loose to 
prey on the community with their paper capital of 
nearly $8,000,000. They were quick to discover 
their error, and at the end of two years repealed the 
charters of these moneyless institutions. They have 
since established two hundred and fifty banks worthy 
to bear the name, which now meet the wants of the 
community with their solid capital of $35,000,000. 
They blundered in 1820, when they began their wild 
acts of relief, whose follies fed upon their own fool- 
ishness until they brought on that conflict between 
the old Court of Appeals and the new, which shook 
the commonwealth to its center. Experience again 
brought them wisdom, and they repealed the act 
establishing the new court, and left the people to 



246 Old Kentucky 

pay the debts they had contracted instead of looking 
to unconstitutional laws to avoid them. They blun- 
dered in internal improvements until they found the 
State staggering under a load of debts, with little of 
valuable works to show for the money they had cost; 
and they blundered in the passage of ill-digested laws, 
to be quickly repealed; but with all their follies of 
legislation, the wisdom of their acts was greatly in 
the ascendant. 

They have three times renewed their first organic 
law, and each time made advances along the line of 
enlightened progress. The constitution of 1799 did 
away with the federal features of that of 1792, and 
brought the people nearer to the agents who were 
to administer their government. The constitution 
of 1850 improved upon that of 1799 in the interest 
of the people by making almost all offices elective, 
and by opening wider the various avenues of prog- 
ress. This was the first of our organic laws which 
looked to the education of the people, and it began 
the great work of setting apart forever in the cause 
of popular education the million of dollars obtained 
from the United States, with its increase from other 
sources. The educational fund was, at that time, 
more than $1,300,000, and recently it has been in- 
creased by another $600,000 from the United States, 
which, with other accumulations, will swell the 
school fund to $2,300,000 at this date. It was under 
this constitution, also, that the old and meaningless 
forms of pleading, inherited from rude ages, were 
abolished, and codes of practice established in their 
stead. The last constitution, of 1891, has departed 
widely from the beaten track of its predecessors and 
made radical changes, the wisdom or the folly of 
which time alone can determine. The makers seem 
to have honestly struggled to meet the wants of the 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 247 

acl\anced and progressive people, and It remains to 
be seen whether the changed and ever-varying con- 
ditions of our citizens have been sufficiently provided 
for in this instrument. 

In the interest of broad humanity, they passed the 
act of 1798, repealing the bloody code inherited 
from the mother country, which made our people 
liable to be hanged for no less than one hundred and 
sixty-five enumerated crimes. We can hardly realize 
that as late as 1798 Kentuckians were subject to the 
death penalty of the law for larceny, perjury, for- 
gery, arson, obtaining money under false pretenses, 
etc. They were a little slow and stealthy in doing 
so, but they repealed that disgraceful law by which a 
man was punished at the whipping-post, by omitting 
this degrading penalty from the revised statutes of 
1870. They have established asylums for the in- 
sane, and schools for the blind and the deaf and 
dumb, and retreats for the aged and homes for the 
poor. Even their prisons are no longer those sick- 
ening dungeons which came down from the dark 
ages, but decent homes of confinement where mercy 
guards the victims and humanity allures them to re- 
form. Like prudent heirs who have not squandered 
the estate bequeathed by their ancestors, they have 
not diminished the magnificent territoi*y they ob- 
tained from Virginia, but have enlarged it. In the 
southwestern corner of the State they acquired from 
the Chickasaw Indians, in 18 19, seven millions of 
acres, out of which the flourishing counties of Mc- 
Cracken, Ballard, Marshall, Carlisle, Calloway, 
Graves, Hickman, and Fulton have been made. 
With a moral courage that never shrank from the 
candid expression of opinions on Important subjects, 
they gave to their country the resolutions of 1798-9 
as the embodiment of the doctrine of States' rights. 



248 Old Kentucky 

These celebrated resolutions have shaped the politi- 
cal faith of leading parties ever since, and they seem 
destined to exert an undiminished influence for all 
time to come. 

The farmer has laid aside the rude and clumsy 
helps to his industry, and now uses implements which 
almost do his work for him. Pie opens his land and 
puts in his crop and cultivates it and gathers and pre- 
pares It for market by machinery that leaves him 
little to do with his hands. The mechanic who was 
a maker and mender of all kinds of things has be- 
come a specialist, and now we have an expert for 
every different occupation. The house that was 
built by the carpenter of 1792 now requires the 
services of the cabinetmaker, the joiner, the plumber, 
the plasterer, the glazier, the painter, the mason, the 
turner, the upholsterer, and a dozen others, with an 
architect to direct the little army. Those great clv- 
Ilizers of the world, the newspaper and the printing- 
press, have advanced step by step in progressive Im- 
provements until they have almost reached perfec- 
tion. There are newspapers in almost every village 
In the State, numbering something like three hundred 
In all, and turning out at a single Issue seven hundred 
and fifty thousand impressions. There are printing 
presses, like the great Hoe of the Courier-Journal, 
with almost human Intelligence, that print and fold 
twenty-five thousand eight-page papers In an hour. 
The first book printed in the State was Issued from 
the hand-press of Maxwell & Gooch, at Lexington, 
In 1793. It required long and weary months of la- 
bor to get out a small edition of this little volume of 
ninety-six octavo pages. Such a book could now be 
sent out In a large edition from one of our principal 
publishing houses in a single week. 

All over our broad land free schools have been es- 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 249 

tablished, in which the children of all citizens may 
acquire a good business education. If they would 
then extend their studies, there are private schools 
everywhere in which the higher branches of learn- 
ing may be pursued; and if they would yet go far- 
ther, there are colleges at Danville and Richmond 
and Lexington and Georgetown and Bardstown or 
St. Mary's, in which a finished education may be ob- 
tained. There are medical schools and law schools 
and theological schools and schools of art and science 
and design and mechanics, in which almost every 
branch of human knowledge is open to the student. 
There are public libraries and association libraries 
and special libraries and private libraries, where the 
best books of all ages and countries are stored. Most 
of the leading religions of the times are represented, 
and with all of them combined in the interest of hu- 
man souls, there is scarcely a nook or corner in which 
prayer and song and preaching may not be heard. 
Many of the church edifices of our cities are fine 
specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, and the ten- 
dency is to make these structures yet more worthy of 
the sacred office to which they are devoted. In every 
part of the State post-offices have been established, 
and in the leading cities letters and packages are de- 
livered at the doors of those to whom they are ad- 
dressed. More rapid than mail carriers in the trans- 
mission of news and knowledge there are telegraph 
wires throughout the State, over which electricity 
flashes messages regardless of time and space; and 
there are telephone wires over which the human 
voice, in conversational tones, is heard at distances 
where the thunders would be silent. That myster- 
ious energy which thunders in the storm-cloud and 
gilds the darkness of the night with the glow of the 
midday sun has been made to move machinery with 



250 Old Kentucky 

a velocity hitherto unknown, and to dispel the shad- 
ows of the night. Passenger cars propelled by its 
invisible might glide along the thoroughfares of our 
cities, and provisions are being made to make it the 
motive power of locomotives to draw immense trains 
of cars over the lines of the railroads extending over 
our vast country. We call this subtle agency elec- 
tricity, and assign to it possibilities for the future as 
great as its mysteries are now and have been in the 
past. Steam engines have been placed in every po- 
sition in which power is required. They ride on our 
railroads, they float on our rivers, they whirl in our 
factories, they know not weariness, nor require rest. 
By day and by night, in sunshine and in cloud, they 
cease not their mighty efforts. They perform the 
work which the entire population of the State could 
not do without them, and exist among us as two mil- 
lions of constant unwearying toilers. 

Our people live in houses that differ from those 
of the last century as the palace of the prince differs 
from the hovel of the peasant. In the Croghan 
house at Locust Grove, and the Clark house at Mul- 
berry Hill, both of which have come down to us 
from the last century, we have specimens of the best 
styles of the houses erected by our forefathers when 
they thought it safe to leave the forts and dwell in 
the open country. The Croghan is a square house 
built of brick, one story high, with two rooms on 
each side of a broad hall, while the Clark is a par- 
allelogram, built of hewed logs two stories high, 
with one room above and one below on each side of 
the hall. 

The style of the buildings that followed these 
pioneer structures was the basement house with steps 
leading to the floor above the ground, and finally this 
was followed by what now prevails in a strange mix- 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 251 

ture of the Gothic castle, the Italian \illa, and the 
Elizabethan cottage with the Virginian mansion. A 
few who prefer comfort to display yet build the old 
manor houses with large rooms and broad halls, in- 
closed by plain but solid walls. The gas that lights 
and heats these houses, the furnaces that warm them, 
the water that flows through them, the photographs 
that hang on the walls, the machine-made furniture 
that adorns the rooms, the mattresses of hair, the 
comforts of down, the porcelain, the glass, the gilded 
knives and forks and spoons, the plated ware, and, 
in fact, nearly all the articles of luxury or comfort 
are the work of the century which has just closed. 
It may be added that new kinds of meats, drinks, 
vegetables and fruits are now placed upon the table 
for breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, and supper at hours 
that would not have been tolerated by the pioneers. 
We have bored into the deep-seated rocks of the 
earth, and penetrated great reservoirs of natnaral gas 
held down for untold ages by arches of anticlinal 
axes, and laid long lines of iron pipes to conduct it 
to our homes and our factories. Its smokeless light 
and its dirtless heat are as great improvements upon 
the coal fire and artificial gas light of our times as 
these were upon the wood fire and the tallow candle 
of our ancestors. 

We have had no dearth of historians to record 
these advances of our country and people, there hav- 
ing been no fewer than eighteen of them from Fil- 
son, in 1784, to Smith, in 1889; and yet there is 
room for one more to leave unsaid much that has 
been said, and to say much that has been left un- 
said, and to say what is to be said in a different style. 
We naturally incline to good opinions for John Fil- 
son, the first historian of Kentucky, in honor of 
whom our club has been named, but all prejudice 



252 Old Kentucky 

aside, when we take into consideration the Httle his- 
tory the new State had to be written in 1784, and 
allow for the superior deserts of his map of Ken- 
tucky and life of Boone, we must candidly say that 
the merits of his history have not been surpassed by 
those of any since written. 

MILITARY CHARACTER 

With a bravery worthy of the chivalrous race 
from which they sprang, Kentuckians fought the In- 
dian at home until his war-whoop no longer rang in 
the forest and his scalping-knife no longer gleamed 
at the cabin door. They followed him to Chilli- 
cothe and to Pickaway, to the Maumee and tO' the 
Tennessee, to his mountain fastnesses and to his for- 
est retreats, until, in 1794, at the Fallen Timbers, 
they dealt him that fatal and crushing blow from 
which he never sufficiently recovered to return to his 
favorite fighting- and hunting-grounds. Nor was 
their bravery of that narrow kind which risks life 
for self alone. They fought under Harrison at Tip- 
pecanoe and on the Thames, under Jackson at New 
Orleans, under Houston in Texas, and under Taylor 
and Scott in Mexico; and on every field they won a 
name that their descendants are proud to claim as 
a part of their glorious inheritance. And alas ! when 
cruel fate decreed that their own country must suffer 
the horrors of civil war, and that they must meet 
their brothers and friends upon the field of battle, 
they shrank not from the duty to which conscience 
called. They sent to the Union Army eighty thou- 
sand of their brave sons, and to the Confederate 
Army half as many more, making the largest num- 
ber in proportion to population contributed by any 
State to the civil war. They laid down their lives 



Kentucky, Her History and Her People 253 

on many a well-fought field under their Confederate 
leaders, Johnston and Breckinridge and Preston and 
Buckncr and Morgan and Duke and Marshall, and 
they fought not less nobly under Union commanders. 

DISTINGUISHED KENTUCKIANS 

AH along the line of the century which closes its 
circle to-day, Kentuckians have made enviable names 
at home and abroad. Were we to attempt to enum- 
erate them on this occasion, the day would pass and 
the coming night envelop us in its darkness before 
the list could be completed. We rejoice that among 
the first of philanthropists, her gifted son, John 
Breckinridge, drafted the law of 1798 which did 
away with the death penalty for all crimes except 
murder; that her learned lawyers, Harr>^ Toulmin 
and James Blair, led the way of modern codes when 
they issued their review of the criminal law in 1804; 
that her ingenious inventors, John Fitch and James 
Rumsey, had mastered the principles of the steam- 
boat in 1787 ; and that Thomas H. Barlow invented 
the Planetarium and made a model of the first loco- 
motive in 1826. They point with pride to their dis- 
tinguished surgeons, Walter Brashear, who, in 1806, 
first amputated the thigh at the hip joint, and 
Ephraim McDowell, who became the father^ of 
ovariotomy in 1809. Two Presidents of the United 
States and four Vice-Presidents first saw the light 
in Kentucky homes, and another of her favored sons 
was Chief Executive of the Confederate States. 
They have been United States cabinet officers and 
justices and speakers and ministers abroad, and have 
filled the highest ranks in the army and navy. They 
have been the governors, the lieutenant-governors, 
the legislators, and the judges of sister States. Such 



254 Old Kentucky 

statesmen as Clay and Crittenden, such orators as 
Menifee and Marshall, such journalists as Prentice 
and Penn, such poets as O'Hara and Cosby, such ar- 
tists as Jouett and Hart, have made fame for them- 
selves and their State which bore their names to 
every portion of the civilized world. I refrain from 
allusions to the distinguished living, though the effort 
at suppression is hard, knowing as I do that any 
enumerating of them would require more time than 
can be given on this occasion. 

THE FUTURE 

We may not presume to peer into the dark un- 
known and attempt tO' foretell what is to come; but 
the data of the past and the present are suggestive 
of the future. None of us now present can hope to 
witness another Kentucky centenary. All of us will 
be laid to rest with the occupants of our cities of the 
dead before this day can make its return. Even those 
who shall then be here will not, probably, see our 
population increased by such a ratio as accompanied 
the years of the century just closed. Half a dozen 
or more millions may then be here engaged in the 
different pursuits of life. They will not abandon 
the municipalities, nor those blue-grass lands peren- 
nially enriched by the decaying limestone on which 
they rest; but a new center of population and indus- 
try and wealth will be then found in our mineral 
regions. The coal and iron underlying tAvelve thou- 
sand square miles of mountainous counti*y that the 
pioneers deemed of no practical use, will give to 
these lands a value beyond that of the blue-grass 
fields. The coal will be lifted from its bed of ages, 
and sent abroad to warm the people and move the 
machinery of the world. The iron will be mined and 



Kentucky, II cr His lory and Her People 255 

welded into bands to unite the nations of the earth. 
Raih'oads will rush through the mountain valleys, 
and furnaces and factories will glow along their 
lines. A hardy population of miners will build their 
cottages upon the hillsides and mountain slopes, and 
the rugged country will be changed from a wilder- 
ness to a region of picturesque beauty. The moun- 
taineers thus brought in contact with enlightening in- 
dustries, and in full view of the glories of the ad- 
vancing world around them, may cease those ven- 
dettas which have disgraced humanity, and become 
an industrious, thriving, and progressive people. 
With half a dozen millions of inhabitants farming 
upon our blue-grass plains, and mining in our moun- 
tains, and grazing stock upon our hills, and manufac- 
turing in our cities, and cultivating the arts and the 
sciences everywhere, Kentuckians of the century to 
come may rejoice in the blessings of a country as far 
in advance of ours as the one we enjoy is beyond that 
of the pioneers. 

The frowning mountains and the rugged hills 
Will yield to plastic art; and, to the hum 
Of wheels and the ring of anvils, uncounted 
Joyous tongues will swell Industry's chorus 
Until the earth, the waters, and the air 
Resound with the harmonies of progress. 

Onward, still onward and forever, will 
Be the watchword until millions of feet 
Threading the byways of spreading commerce 
And myriads of hands manipulating 
The useful arts have made tlie ^vilderness 
Of the everlasting, rock-ribbed mountains 
To blossom as the rose. 

When that glorious time shall come, we who close 
the first and open the second centui-y of our State- 
hood to-day will not be forgotten by those who may 
participate in the second centenary^; but we may be 
remembered as a happy people on an emerald isle in 



256 Old Kentucky 

the midst of the river of centuries, whose joyous 
v^oices resounding through the ages and minghng 
with those on the shore of 1792 and with those on 
the shore of 1992 will unite them into one grand 
harmony of kindred sounds. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE HOME-COMING 

There is no question that love of home is one of 
the great influences that tends to make good citizens. 
A tenderness pervades the heart when memories of 
the old home come upon one, and this love is one of 
the noblest sentiments within the human breast. It 
is an influence that extends throughout one's life, and 
the more noble the nature, the more intense it is, and 
it grows with the years. As age creeps upon one the 
mind turns to scenes of childhood, and in the dying 
hour home scenes come vividly before the mind, and 
the last recollections of life are recollections of 
mother, father, and of the joys of childhood in the 
old home. Every one who loves the race, every one 
who loves his country should encourage this feeling 
in the young, for it will make better and happier citi- 
zens, and make them strive to have homes like father 
and mother had for them. Without home influences 
Christianity would fail to accomplish Its purposes; 
and it may be said — no home, no church; no church, 
no religious influences, no upbuilding of the race; no 
good citizenship, no patriotism. 

The first commandment with promise is "Honor 
thy father and mother," and this ought to be the first 
lesson taught to children, and It can be taught best 
at the mother's knee. The noblest influences that 
enter into life have their beginning In the early days 
of happy childhood In the well-regulated home. 
Many great men In the hour of death go back in 
memoi-y to home and mother and the caresses they 
17 



258 Old Kentucky 

received in childhood. It has been said that Presi- 
dent Garfield before he passed away seemed to go 
back to his childhood, and that he wanted his mother 
to rock him to sleep Avith the little song that she used 
to sing when he was a child. One can readily be- 
lieve that this is true, from his conduct the day he 
was inaugurated President of the United States. 
Surrounded by many of the great men of his own 
counti-y and of foreign countries, in the midst of 
splendor, as soon as he had taken the oath of ofHce 
he turned tenderly to his old mother, who was sitting 
behind him, and kissed her with the affection of a 
little child. He remembered how the tired hands of 
his mother had toiled to give him what advantages 
she could, and how she had sacrificed every comfort 
for him ; and though she was old and plain, he was 
not ashamed of her, and that very act of affection 
endeared him to the hearts of all good people. Few 
men who have had good homes and mothers have 
become criminals; and those who stand in the sa- 
cred desk cannot do better service than to help pa- 
rents build and keep Christian homes; and the faith- 
ful teacher should teach, next tO' the fear of God, 
obedience and love tO' parents. 

One of the most marked characteristics of Ken- 
tucky life was the inculcation of love for home and 
respect for parents. The sanctity of the home was 
guarded carefully and no one dared encroach upon 
it; although there were exceptions, this was the gen- 
eral rule. The man would die to protect his home 
and the purity of his family. 

According to the census there are nearly 600,000 
native Kentuckians dwelling in other States, Terri- 
tories, and countries. The great majority of them 
are engaged in social and domestic pursuits, and have 
been home-builders, but a large number have be- 



The Home-Coming 259 

come very prominent in public and social life as 
teachers, ministers of the gospel, and representatives 
of this counti-y in foreign lands. Yet it would be 
hard to find a genuine Kentuckian, wherever he may 
be, and whatever his employment, who has not the 
spirit that he inherited from his old home State. It 
has been universally accepted tiaith, "Once a Ken- 
tuckian, always a Kentuckian." Not only those who 
left their old homes in the commonwealth, but those 
who have remained in their Kentucky homes, follow 
with keen delight their kinsmen and fellow-citizens. 
They are with them in their labors and they rejoice 
in their successes. There is no spirit of jealousy; 
the more successful a Kentuckian becomes, the more 
he is loved and honored by his native State. 

One of the most beautiful and inspiring events 
that has occurred in this country was the home gath- 
ering of Kentucky people in Louisville in June, 1906. 
Such a gathering perhaps has never been seen in this 
country. The home people's longing for a return of 
those who had gone out from the Commonwealth 
resulted in a plan to bring as many back as possible. 
It was a plan beautiful in conception and it was 
worthily carried out. The Governor of the State 
went through the formality of issuing a proclama- 
tion for the children of the old State to come back 
home for a visit, to renew old acquaintances, and to 
test the hospitality of their State, to see whether it 
had degenerated in this time of commercial selfish- 
ness. It was a beautiful proclamation, and in the 
course of it Governor Beckham said : 

"Wherever you have wandered, into whatever 
land or clime you may have gone to take up your 
abode, you are now, by parental authorit}^, sum- 
moned back to the dear old State that gave birth to 
your fathers. The old dinner-horn, that in days of 



26o Old Kentucky 

yore told you of the approaching meal, has been 
taken down from the wall, and there issues from its 
sonorous and hospitable mouth a trumpet call reach- 
ing the remotest corners of the earth and breathing 
into the ear of every home-loving Kentuckian the 
magical and irresistible appeal that he drop all else 
and forthwith begin his pilgrimage back to his na- 
tive heath. A joyous welcome awaits you." 

The whole proclamation is beautiful and happy 
in its expression. The time appointed for the home- 
coming was from June 13 to June 17, and it is just 
and proper to say that the suggestion that such a 
home-coming be held was made by a daughter of 
Kentucky living in Denver, Colorado, Miss Louise 
Lee Hardin. The very name suggests Kentucky 
blood of the purest strain. She was received with 
the most distinguished honor and was presented with 
a beautiful gold medal. Rev. Dr. Carter Helm 
Jones, pastor of the Broadway Baptist Church, on 
behalf of the Commercial Club, made the following 
address, and presented the medal to Miss Hardin : 

"Governor Beckham and Fellow-Kentuckians : 

" 'The sun shines bright' in our warm Kentucky 
hearts. I would like to ask the Kentuckians present 
what would become of us if we did not have sugges- 
tions from our women — not that we are likely to be 
permanently without them, what to do with them 
sometimes is the question ; and yet how could we live 
without them? I rejoice that Kentucky has never 
been an Eveless Eden, but women's e^^es have always 
been the stars for our night; her smiles have always 
made our radiant mornings; her sacramental touch 
has divinized our daily toil; and her love has given 
the meridian glory to our day. Of course, it was a 
woman's suggestion that we should have this home- 



The Home-Coming 261 

coming. Why not? We men are prone to act upon 
the cold intellectual impulse of the head, but our 
women walk to the music of heart throbs, and this 
great occasion is the answer to the question as to 
whether sentiment has yielded to the march of crass 
industrial commercialism. So it was that many 
months ago a daughter of Kentucky, moved by a 
heavenly vision, stretched out her lingers until she 
touched the heart-harp of a thousand strings, and 
evoked music that was heard around the world. 
Music that had power to freight itself with light and 
love and sound — the gleam of the hearth-fire, the 
fragrance of the old rose and honeysuckle, the song 
of birds, the prattle of children, the rhythm of run- 
ning brooks, the breath of summers whispering in 
the blue-grass. Yes, a music insistent enough to hush 
the dissonance of all the world's grind and sordid 
craft and sweet enough to woo envying angels from 
the very heavenly ramparts. For I believe, if we 
could see and hear the unseen, for us the all above 
would pulse with vibrant pinions while 

" ' * * * Those Angel faces smile 

Which we have lovel long since, and lost awhile.' 

"And so, in behalf of the great Commercial Club 
of our imperial city, representing the best city in all 
this world, I come to decorate you, Miss Hardin. 
T greet you as one of our sisters worthy to stand 
among those 

" 'The Knightliest of the Knightly race 
That since the days of old, 
Have kept the lamp of chivalry 
Alight in hearts of gold.' 



"And now, fair Kentuckian, speech that would 
like to have been 'silvern' has faltered into failure. 



262 Old Kentucky 

Let it, thus, give way tO' 'golden silence' which shall 
bear our beautiful and lasting message. May I call 
you, dropping for the nonce the conventional prefix, 
Louise Lee Hardin? We shall 'miss' you when you 
are gone. Louise, linking you with universal wom- 
anhood, Lee with immortality of fame, and Hardin 
with the unique glory of your own Kentucky. Pre- 
cede us always. Miss Hardin, along your radiant 
way, and in the sweet bye-and-bye come graciously 
to meet us and show us the way to the New Kentucky 
Home — the 'House not made with hands.' " 

The home-comers met in the beautiful city of 
Louisville, and what a revelation it was to many of 
them to see the improvement of that city ! Some had 
seen it more than fifty years ago when it was merely 
a quiet little hospitable city. I remember it well as 
it was in the fifties, and the impression that it made 
on me at that time is vividly before me now. The 
first great surprise was the Ohio- River, the first 
river beside the Kentucky that I had ever seen. I 
remember that it looked greater to me then than the 
ocean has looked to me since, and I could not under- 
stand how people could get over such a vast body of 
water. And standing there I saw a steamer coming 
over, and on the side was written John Sliallcross, 
which I thought was simply a motto that meant he 
would sure make the trip, which he did to my joy 
and surprise. There was really not much to Louis- 
ville then, but what there was was good. There was 
a superior class of people, as hospitable as they were 
in my old county, Shelby. The old Louisville hotel 
was my stopping-place, and I have found very few 
better hotels since. We went there sure of good 
treatment, and when we married we carried our 
brides there, and we were treated as Kentuckians 



The Home-Coming 263 

want to be treated. Main Street had then some very 
good buildings, and I remember we had some old 
friends in the grocery business named King; and 
Morton & Griswold published the old almanac, 
which I would rather have to-day, without a number 
missing, than the Encyclopedia Brittanica. 

Kentuckians love good old Louisville and the 
city was prepared In spirit and ability to take care 
of the vast crowds that came to the old home 
gathering. There was scarcely a Kentuckian that 
wasn't proud of the city. It has beautiful homes, 
It has metropolitan stores, fine churches, and schools, 
a population of more than 300,000, ten great rail- 
roads; It has medical schools, law schools, and 
perhaps the best theological seminary in the world. 
It has splendid river transportation, reaching thirty- 
three navigable rivers; a waterway to the Gulf of 
Mexico, $100,000,000 Invested In manufactories, 
the richest banks in the South, surrounded by the 
richest known agricultural section; It has as good 
hotel accommodations as can be found In the country, 
and, without further enumeration, it has almost 
everything desirable. 

This beautiful city was opened to the home-comers. 
They were welcomed In every way, by the Gov^ernor, 
the Mayor, and then by the President of the Com- 
mercial Club, perhaps one of the most active com- 
mercial clubs in the country. Every man and woman 
who came into Louisville, so far as we know, felt 
that everything good In the city was open to him or 
her, the hospitality was unbounded. All classes of 
Kentuckians were represented In that gathering; the 
old became young again ; and as a solid old soul 
said, "Nobody In Louisville seemed stuck-up." The 
greatest men In the nation were there, and there was 
a joyous feeling of equality manifested by all. It 



264 Old Kentucky 

would take a book to record the names of those who 
came from all parts of the world to join In this gath- 
ering. Every State and Territory in the Union has 
Kentuckians in it, and there is scarcely a country 
known to mankind but what you will find Kentuckians 
in that country. In a measure the great Southwest 
has been built up principally through Kentucky in- 
fluence, and whatever was the political or religious 
sentiment of the people there, they were one people 
in spirit — they were Kentuckians There was some- 
thing almost pathetic in the gathering, many old 
people making the pilgrimage back to the old home 
place. 

It would be a pleasure to mention by name many 
of them, people I have known almost all my life; 
but one that comes to me first was one of the purest 
and best men I ever knew, Preston H. Leslie. He 
was eighty-eight years old, and he came all the way 
from Helena, Montana, to mingle with his old-time 
friends. He served Kentucky well, having been in 
the State Senate for eight years, and Governor of the 
State from 1 871 to 1875 ; he was Governor of Mon- 
tana, he was United States Attorney for the District 
of Montana, and during his entire life has always 
been an earnest Christian. He came back, and in the 
course of the few remarks that he made, with tears 
streaming down his face, he said, "I am glad once 
more to look upon the dear old commonwealth." 

Three of Missouri's former governors were 
there — the able, capable and indomitable David R. 
Francis, the brilliant William Stone, now United 
States Senator, and the cultured and handsome Thos. 
T. Crittenden, perhaps, all things considered, the 
best-bred Kentuckian, descended from one of the most 
distinguished families of the Union. Our own Tom 
L. Johnson, almost holding a life tenure on the 



Tlie Home-Coming 265 

mayoralty of Cleveland, and our Carter Harrison, 
so long Mayor of Chicago, are numbered, too, among 
the sons of Kentucky. Among her distinguished 
sons there are now in Congress five United States 
Senators, and one, General Bell, is well known as the 
Chief of Staff of the United States Army. One of 
Kentucky's most brilliant and distinguished men. 
Judge Wm. Lindsay, of New York, made one of the 
finest addresses that was heard during the gathering, 
and another of her sons, Adlai E. Stevenson, was 
there almost in the enjoyment of youthful happiness. 
But it is useless to try to name them all, for her noble 
sons are found everywhere. 

There were many amusing things told at the 
home-coming. One old man came from Missouri to 
Kentucky with a wheel-barrow, and made the trip all 
right, too. One old Kentucky woman, Mrs. Nevin, 
who left the State fifty-six years ago and went to Cali- 
fornia, came back in her special car, being a woman 
of very large means, who, it is said, never has less 
than $100,000 in gold in her strong box in her safety 
vault. When she reached the Ohio River she 
shouted, "Glory Hallelujah!" with tears of joy run- 
ning down her cheeks, and nearly every one in the 
party was affected. When asked about the trip, she 
said, "I don't like to talk too much, or rather, I am 
afraid to talk. I was put in jail once for talking too 
much, and kept there for twelve days for shouting 
'Hurrah for Jefferson Davis!' When I reached this 
old river I could not help crying. I am seventy years 
old, and looking back I can say I never knew a sorrow 
in my old Kentucky home." 

It is said that there never were so many tears shed 
on one occasion as were shed when the people as- 
sembled in that home-coming. Old memories stirred 
their hearts, and in conversation they went back to 



266 Old Kentucky 

the old times, and lived over old scenes, and it did 
them good and made them better people. Old 
people went back in memory to their homes of child- 
hood; they looked in upon their old cabin where they 
were born, they saw again the better homes their 
parents provided for them and in which those parents 
died; they wandered in the grand old forests; they 
went to the little streams where they caught their 
first fish and where they learned to swim ; they went 
gathering nuts and papaws in the woods, into the 
old orchards to visit the favorite apple tree; they 
remembered the names of the horses, cows and dogs ; 
they went to the grave)^ards where their dead were 
buried, to the old church where they first heard sacred 
song and prayer, to the little log schoolhouse where 
they learned their letters ; they remembered their first 
sweethearts, and then the lonely, lonely years when 
they went out from their old Kentucky home to make 
their way in the world. They remembered every- 
thing — everything. Oh, those thousand sacred mem- 
ories that come crowding intO' the heart, how much 
they have to do v^'ith our lives as we daily toil along, 
helping to build up the kind of country that Ken- 
tuckians are taught to love ! 

Wednesday, June 13th, was reception and welcome 
day. The address of welcome by Honorable Henry 
Watterson is a gem of beauty and ought to be pre- 
served. In order to do this I gladly give it a place 
in this book, and do so with his full approbation. In 
closing a recent letter to me, Mr. Watterson said, "I 
acknowledge your veiy kind letter and thank you 
for it. I shall be very greatly honored if you see fit 
to use anything of mine which you can lay hands 
upon." The Courier-Journal has furnished me full 
copies of the entire proceedings and given me author- 
ity to use anything I desire. And the time will surely 



The Home-Coming 267 

come when Kentuckians, in justice to themselves, will 
see that the whole proceedings of the home-coming 
and all the addresses, with many of the most promin- 
ent names, shall be put where they will be preserved 
in the archives of the State. 

I give the address of Mr. Watterson in full. 

" 'Once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian.' 
From the cradle to the grave, the arms of the mother- 
land, stretched forth in mother-love — the bosom of 
the mother-land, immortal as the ages, yet mortal in 
maternal affection, warmed by the rich, red blood of 
Virginia — the voice of the mother-land, reaching the 
farthest corners of the earth in tones of Heavenly 
music — summon the errant to the roof-tree's shade 
and bid the wanderer home. What wanderer yet was 
ever loath to come? Whether upon the heights of 
fortune and fame, or down amid the shadows of the 
valley of death and despair, the true Kentuckian, 
seeing the shining eyes and hearing the mother call, 
sends back the answering refrain — 

" 'Where'er I roam, \vhatever realms I see, 
My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee.' 

"Kentucky! Old Kentucky! The vei7 name has 
had a charm, has wrought a spell, has made a melody 
all of its own ; has woven on its sylvan loom a gloi'y 
quite apart from the glory of Virginia, Kentucky's 
mother, and the glory of Tennessee, Kentucky's 
sister. It has bloomed in all hearts where manhood 
and womanhood hold the right of way. The drama 
of the ages, told in pulse-beats, finds here an interlude 
which Fiction vainly emulates and His'toi-y may not 
o'erleap. Not as the Greek, seeking Promethian fire 
and oracles of Delphos, nor as the Roman filled with 
the joy of living and the lust of conquest; not as the 
^'iking, springing to the call of wind and wave, nor 



2 68 Old Kentucky 

as the Latin, dazzled by the glitter of gold, mad with 
the thirst for glory; neither as the Britain and the 
Teuton, eager for mastership on land and sea, the 
Kentuckian, whom we, in filial homage, salute pro- 
genitor. He was as none of these. Big in bone and 
strong of voice — the full-grown man prefigured by 
the psalmist — never the ocean mirrored his fancies, 
nor the snow-clad peaks that reach the skies inspired; 
but the mystery of strange lands, the savagery of 
Nature and the song of the greenwood tree. 

"The star that shone above him and led him on 
was love of liberty, the beacon of his dreams, the light 
of the fireside. He cut a clearing in the wildwood 
and called it 'home,' Pie read not romance, he made 
it; nor poetry, he lived it; his the forest epic, the 
Illiad of the canebrake, the Odyssey of the frontier, 
the unconscious prose-poem of the rifle and the camp, 
the blockhouse and the plow, the Holy Bible and the 
old field school. 

"Happy the man who has sat in childhood upon a 
well-loved grandsire's knee, awed by the telling of 
the wondrous tale; how even as the Dardanae fol- 
lowed Aeneas, the Virginians followed Boone; the 
route from Troy to Tiber not wearier, nor flanked 
by greater hazard, than that betwixt the shores of 
the Chesapeake and the Falls of the Ohio; the moun- 
tains standing, gorgon-like, across the pathless way, 
as if, defending each defile, to hold inviolate some- 
dread, forbidden secret; the weird wastes of wil- 
derness beyond; the fordless stream; the yawning 
chasm ; the gleam of the tomahawk and the hiss of 
the serpent; yet ever onward, spite of the haunting 
voice of the elements, stripped for the death-struggle 
with man, spite of the silence and the solitude of re- 
luctant Nature, like some fawn-eyed maiden, resisting 
his rude intrusion; ever onward; before him the 



The Homc-Coming 269 

promised land of the hunter's vision; in his soul the 
grace of God, the fear of hell and the lov^e of Vir- 
ginia ! 

"God bless Virginia ! Heaven smile upon her as 
she prepares to celebrate Avith fitting rite three cen- 
turies of majestic achievement, the star-crown upon 
her brow, the distaff in her hand, nor spot, nor blur 
to dim the radiance of her shield ! 

"They came, the Virginians, in their home-spun in 
quest of homes; their warrant their rifles; their pay- 
ment the blood of heroes ; nor yet forgetting a pro- 
verb the Chinese have that 'it needs a hundred men 
to make a fortress, but only a woman can make a 
home' — for they were quick to go back for their 
women; their wives and their sweethearts; our grand- 
mothers, who stood by their side beautiful and daunt- 
less, to load their fowling-pieces, to dress their 
wounds, to cheer them on to battle, singing their 
simple requiem over the dead at Boonesborough and 
bringing water from the spring at Bryan's Station, 
heart-broken only when the news came back from the 
River Rasin. 

"I am here to welcome you in the name of all the 
people of this lovely city, in the name of all the people 
of this renowned commonwealth, to welcome you as 
kith and kin, but you will not expect me, I am sure, 
to add thereto more than the merest outline of the 
history of Kentucky as it is known to each and every 
one of you, from the time when the pathfinders, un- 
der the lead of Harrod and Henderson, of Boone and 
Kenton, blazed their way through the forest, and the 
heroes led by Logan and Shelby, by Scott and Clark, 
rescued the land from the savage, to the hour which 
smiles upon us here this day; a history resplendent 
with illustrious names and deeds; separating itself 
into three great epochs and many episodes and ad- 



270 Old Kentucky 

ventures in woodcraft and warcraft and statecraft: 
the period of the Clays, the Breckinridges and the 
Crittendens, with its sublime struggle to preserve the 
Union of the States as it had come down to them from 
the Revolution, with always the Marshalls and the 
Wickliffes, the Boyles and the Rowans, the Johnsons 
and the Browns, the Adairs, the Deshas, and the Mc- 
Dowells, somewhere at the fore — "Old Ben Hardin" 
having a niche all to himself — none of them greater 
than he ; the period of the war of sections, when even 
the Clays, the Crittendens, and the Breckinridges 
were divided, when for a season the skies were hung 
in sable and all was dark as night, the very sacrifices 
that had gone before seeming to have been made in 
vain, the 'dark and bloody ground' of barbaric fancy 
come into actual being through the passions and mis- 
takes of Christian men ; and, finally, the period after 
the war of sections, when the precept 'once a Ken- 
tuckian, always a Kentuckian,' was met by the ans- 
wering voice, 'blood is thicker than water,' and the 
Goodloes, the Ballards, and the Speeds, the Harlans, 
the Frys, and the Murrays, clasped their hands across 
the breach and made short shrift of the work of Re- 
construction with the Buckners, the Prestons, and the 
Dukes. Thus is it that here at least the perplexed 
grandchild cannot distinguish between the grizzled 
grandfather who wore the blue and the grizzled 
grandfather who wore the gray. 

"Kentucky, which gave Abraham Lincoln to the 
North and Jefferson Davis to the South, contributing 
a very nearly equal quota of soldiers to each of the 
contending armies of that great conflict — in point of 
fact, as many fighting men as had ever voted in any 
election — a larger per centum of the population than 
has ever been furnished in time of war by any 
modern State — Kentucky, thus rent by civil feud, 



The Home-Coming 271 

was first tO' know the battle was ended and to draw 
together in reunited brotherhood. Kentucky struck 
the earliest blow for freedom, furnished the first 
martyrs to liberty in Cuba. It was a Crittenden, 
smiling before a file of Spanish musketr}% refusing to 
be blindfolded or to bend the knee, for the fatal vol- 
ley, who uttered the key-note of his race, 'A Ken- 
tuckian always faces his enemy and kneels only to his 
God.' It was another Kentuckian, the gallant Hol- 
man, who, undaunted by the dread decimation, the 
cruel death-by-lot, having drawn a white bean for 
himself, brushed his friend aside and drew another in 
his stead. Ah, yes; we have our humors along with 
our heroics, and laugh anon at ourselves, and our mis- 
haps and our jokes; but we are nowise a bloody- 
minded people; the rather a sentimental, hospitable, 
kindly people, caring perhaps too much for the pic- 
turesque and too little for consequences. Though 
our jests be sometimes rough, they are robust and 
clean. We are a provincial people and Ave rejoice 
in our provincialism. We have always piqued 
ourselves upon doing our love-making and our 
law-making, as we do our plowing, in a straight fur- 
row; and yet it is true that Kentucky never en- 
countered darker days than came upon us when the 
worst that can befall a commonwealth seemed passed 
and gone. The stubborn war between the Old Court 
party and the New Court part}^ was bitter enough; 
but it was not so implacable as the strife which 
strangely began with the discussion of an honest 
difference of opinion touching a purely economic 
question, of National, not State, policy. Can there 
be one living Kentuckian who does not look back with 
horror and amazement upon the passions and inci- 
dents of those evil days? 

"General Grant once said to me, 'You Kentuckians 



272 Old Kentucky 

are a clannish set. Whilst I was in the White House, 
if a Kentuckian happened to get in harm's way, or 
wanted an office, the Kentucky contingent began to 
pour in ; in case he was a Republican, the Democrats 
said he was a perfect gentleman, in case a Democrat, 
the Republicans said the same thing; can it be that 
you are all perfect gentlemen?' With unblushing 
candor I told him that we were, that we fought our 
battles, as we washed our linen, at home; but that 
outside, when trouble came, it was Kentucky against 
the universe. Mr. Tilden said of a lad in the blue- 
grass country who had fallen from a second-story 
window upon a stone paving without a hurt and had 
run away to his play, that it furnished conclusive 
proof that 'he was destined for a great career in Ken- 
tucky politics.' Let me frankly confess that, peace- 
maker though I am, and at once the most amiable 
and placable of men, there have been times when I, 
even I, half wanted to go down to the cross-roads 
'and swear at the court.' That was when things 
did not swing to suit me. That was when the ma- 
jority appeared to think they knew more than I did. 
We grow so used to blessings that we heed them not 
and look beyond. Yet, when trouble or danger as- 
sails us, or humiliation, or sorrow — or, when leagues, 
oceans, continents lie between ourselves and the van- 
ished land from whose sacred hntels ambition has 
lured us, or duty torn — and the familiar scenes rise 
up before us — how small these frictions seem, how 
small they are, and how they perish from us ! 

"I have stood upon the margin of a distant sea and 
watched the ships go by, envious that their prows 
were westward bent. I have marked the glad waves 
dancing to the setting sun, heartsick with thoughts 
of home. And thus wistful, yearning, ready to take 
my dearest enemy by the hand and forgive him, yea. 



The Home-Coming 273 

to sop gravy with him out of the selfsame dish, these 
words of the vagabond poet, whose sins the Record- 
ing Angel long ago blotted out of his book, have 
come to me and sung to me and cheered me even as 
a mother's lullaby: 

" 'In all my wanderings round tliis world of care, 
In all my griefs — and God has given my share — 
I still had hopes my latest hours to crown, 
Amid these rural scenes to lay me down, 
To husband out life's taper at the close. 
And keep the flame from wasting by repose, 
I still had hopes — for pride attends us still — 
Among the swains to show my book-learned skill. 
Around my fire an evening group to draw. 
And tell of all I felt and all I saw; 
And as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue. 
Pants to the place from whence at first he flew, 
I still had hopes my long vexations past, 
Here to return and die at home at last.' 

"Home ! There may be words as sweet, words 
as tender, words more resonant and high, but, within 
our language round, is there one word so all-embrac- 
ing as that simple word 'home'? Home, 'be it ever 
so humble, there's no place like home,' — the old 
Kentucky home: the home of your fathers, and of 
mine; of innocent childhood, of happy boyhood, of 
budding manhood; when all the world seemed bright 
and fair, and hearts were full and strong; when life 
was a fairy-tale, and the wind, as it breathed upon 
the honeysuckle about the door, whispered naught 
but of love and fame; and glory strode the sun- 
beams; and there was no such music as the low of 
cattle, the whir of the spinning-wheel, the call of the 
dinner-horn, and the creaking of the barnyard gate. 
Home — 

" 'Take the bright shell 

From its home on the lea, 
And wherever it goes 

It will sing of the sea. 
So take the fond heart 

From its home by the hearth, 
'Twill sing of the loved ones 
To the ends of the earth.' 
18 



274 O^d Kentucky 

"For it's 'home, home, home,' sighs the exile on 
the beach, and it's 'home, home, home,' cries the 
hunter from the hills and the hero from the wars — 

" 'Hame to my ain countree,' 

always home, whether it be tears or trophies we 
bring; whether we come with laurels crowned, or 
bent with anguish and sorrow and failure, having 
none other shelter in the wide, wide world beside, 
the prodigal along with the victor — often in his 
dreams, yet always in his hope — turns him home ! 

"You, too', friends and brothers — Kentuckians 
each and eveiy one — you, too, home again; this your 
castle, Kentucky's flag, not wholly hid beneath the 
folds of the Nation's, above it; this your cottage, 
Kentucky-like, the latchstring upon the outer side; 
but, whether castle or cottage, an altar and a shrine 
for faithful hearts and hallowed memories. Be sure 
from yonder skies they look down upon us this day; 
the immortal ones who built this Commonwealth, 
and left it consecrate, a rich inheritance and high re- 
sponsibility to you and me; who, like the father of 
Daniel Webster, shrank from no danger, no toil, no 
sacrifice to serve their country and raise their children 
to a condition better than their own. In God's name, 
and in Kentucky's name, I bid you something more 
than welcome; I bid you know and feel, and carry 
yourselves, as if you knew and felt that you are no 
longer dreaming that this is actually God's country, 
your native soil, that, standing knee-deep in blue- 
grass, you stand full-length in all our homes and all 
our hearts." 

Thursday, June 14, was Stephen Collins Foster 
day, in honor of a man whom Kentuckians loved and 
honored. A monument was unveiled to his memory, 



The Home-Coming 275 

aniitl one of the most inspiring and solemn scenes, 
and when the monument was unveiled the audience 
broke forth singing "My Old Kentucky Home," 
Foster's great song. It is a song that has gone 
around the world; you hear it in Paris, in Berlin, 
and in South America, and in foreign lands it is one 
of the most familiar of American songs. It is one 
of the ties that binds the sentiment of the Old World 
with the New; it brings up most hallowed scenes and 
thoughts of dear ones that never will be seen again. 
Why should not Kentuckians love it? While "My 
Old Kentucky Home" appeals especially to Ken- 
tuckians, it is a song for all America. Foster was 
endowed with peculiarly tender gifts; he could touch 
chords that it seemed no other man could touch. 
Among some of his songs are "Old Black Joe," 
"Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground," "Nellie was a 
Lady," "Old Uncle Ned," "Willie, We Have 
Missed You." and "Old Folks at Home"— 

"Way down upon de Suwanee river, 
Far, far awa\% 
Dat's where dis darky's heart am ever, 
Dat's whar de old folks stay." 

The Courier- Journal says, "Foster was not only 
the greatest song-writer America has produced, but 
one of the greatest the world has ever known." 

The Honorable Mr. Stevenson made an eloquent 
address, which I give in full. Mr. Stevenson said: 

"Fellow-citizens: 

"Fifty years and more ago I became a resident of 
the magnificent State stretching northward from the 
Ohio to the Wisconsin line and to the great inland 
sea. A Kentuckian born, I have kept the faith, and 
at your invitation return to bear some humble part 
in the ceremonies of this hour. The announcement 



276 Old Kentucky 

that Kentucky had set apart a 'Home-coming Week,' 
that the latchstring was out and a glad welcome 
awaiting touched the hearts of all the sons and 
daughters of the grand old commonwealth. 

" 'Once in grace — always in grace.' 

'Once a Kentuckian — always a Kentuckian.' For 
wherever on this green earth the footsteps of her 
children may have wandered — all roads, at some 
time, lead back to the old home; to the hearthstone 
around which cling the tender memories of child- 
hood; to the little mounds where sleep the ashes of 
ancestral dead, 

"The earnest desire to meet and mingle again with 
those whose ancestors, with ours, endured the hard- 
ships and dangers of frontier life — whose fortitude 
and wisdom made sure and steadfast the foundations 
of a splendid State — has been realized, and from be- 
yond the Mississippi and the Ohio, at your cordial 
bidding, we are to-day in our ancestral home. 

"The home-coming to which you have invited us 
is without a parallel. The kindly words that have 
been spoken, the cordial grasp of the hand, the hos- 
pitality extended, all give assurance in the largest 
measure that we are welcome. 

"No place so fitting for this home-coming could 
have been selected as this splendid city. We rejoice 
with you in its prosperity; we share with you its 
glory. Grandly situated upon the banks of the beau- 
iful river 'whose waters flow unvexed to the gulf,' 
itself the mart of a mighty commerce; its railroads 
holding it in sure touch with the remotest parts of the 
continent, the home of a people that knows no su- 
perior in all that constitutes the loftiest civilization — 
truly, all that our eyes behold this day is but the 



The Home-Coming 2^^ 

earnest of the grander day yet to dawn upon this 
magnificent city. 

"The hours are waning, and the unparalleled occa- 
sion that convened this vast assemblage will soon 
pass into history; but henceforth, for aye, Louis- 
ville — the emporium of our noble commonwealth — 
will live in our memories with the home-coming of 
Kentuckians, with that welcome that springs only 
from the heart, with a hospitality that knew no 
bounds, with the renewal of friendships that neither 
distance nor time could dissolve. 

"It has been said that no one can ever get away 
from his ancestors. It Is equally true that he can 
never get wholly away from the old home. To her 
sons, Kentucky skies were ever the brightest, her 
daughters the fairest, her orators the most eloquent. 

"Illinois has not been unmindful of her obligation 
to her sister State to the southward — separated by 
the Ohio, but united by ancestral ties, and the mem- 
ories of common dangers. More than seventy years 
ago, while there yet survived within her borders he- 
roes of the Thames, of Tippecanoe, and of 'the mel- 
ancholy Raisin,' Illinois honored herself by giving 
to a splendid county the name of 'Jo Daviess' in en- 
during commemoration of her gratitude to the pro- 
found lawyer, peerless orator and warrior as knightly 
as ever Kentucky sent forth to meet death upon the 
field of battle. 

"The occasion Is fitting to mention an event of the 
deepest consequence to what was then known as 'the 
Illinois Country.' It was Indeed an event of pro- 
found significance, and one which hastened the gath- 
ering forces which were soon to wrest from the Brit- 
ish crown no small part of the splendid domain won 
from France by Wolfe's brilliant victory at Quebec. 



278 Old Kentucky 

" 'the heroic clark' 

"While the Revolutionary war was still in prog- 
ress — and its glorious ending as yet but dimly fore- 
shadowed — Gen. George Rogers Clark planned an 
expedition, whose successful termination has given his 
name to the list of great conquerors — one declared 
by John Randolph worthy of mention with the cam- 
paigns of Hannibal in Italy. Bearing the commission 
of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, with two 
hundred daring followers — gathered from Harrod's 
Station, the Valley of the Elkhorn, the Falls of th<" 
Ohio and other sparsely populated settlements in 
Kentucky — the heroic Clark crossed the Ohio and 
began his perilous march. After enduring hardships, 
the recital of which, even now, makes the heart sick, 
the undaunted leader and his little band reached the 
colonial capital — Kaskaskia — upon the banks of the 
upper Mississippi. The British commander and his 
garrison were surprised and quickly captured. The 
British flag was lowered and 'the Illinois Countiy' 
taken possession of in the name of the commonwealth 
whose Governor had authorized the expedition. 
Thus, by the far-seeing statesmanship and heroism 
of Clark and the endurance and courage of his little 
band of Kentucky riflemen — heroes all as 'knightly 
as ever fought beneath a plume' — the symbol of 
British authority disappeared forever from the do- 
main of Illinois, to be succeeded in the then near fu- 
ture by the ever-inspiring symbol of an 'indissoluble 
Union of indestructible States.' A splendid county in 
Illinois will hand clown to future ages the illustrious 
name of Clark, while the record of his glorious 
achievements — and that of his equally heroic com- 
rades — are among our enduring historic treasures. 

"In the beautiful cemetery near the capital city 



The Home-Coming 279 

of this commonwealth — where sleep so many of her 
illustrious dead — stands a monument unique and im- 
posing, erected by a grateful people to the heroes 
who fell upon the bloody field of Buena Vista. In- 
scribed upon that monument with the names of Mc- 
Kee and of Clay is that of an illustrious Illinoisan — 
a Kentuckian by birth — the peerless soldier, John J. 
Hardin. It was of these and their comrades, in 
death as in life, your own poet wrote the inspiring 
lines inscribed to-day upon a hundred monuments : 

" 'On fame's eternal camping ground 
Their silent tents are spread.' 

"With such memories as a heritage, is it strange 
that your call has been obeyed, and that so many 
Illinoisans are your guests at this wondrous home- 
coming? 

"And, my fellow-citizens, what a glorious his- 
tory — how inspiring to its youth — that of this grand 
old State! There are those yet living whose good 
fortune it was to have known its 'builders' — the men 
who set up its public defences; the men under whose 
auspices Kentucky became a State in the Federal 
Union — and little more than a century ago entered 
upon its marvelous career. Out of the stirring inci- 
dents here occurring might be garnered the very 
warp and woof of the romances of histoi7. The an- 
nals of the old commonwealth teem with incidents of 
perilous adventure — are resplendent with deeds of 
noble self-sacrifice. Upon braver men, nobler and 
more devoted women than those by whose toil and 
sacrifice was laid deep and enduring the foundations 
of this commonwealth — the sun in all his course has 
nowhere looked down. The story of frontier life, 
its hardships, privations, and dangers, can never lose 
Its pathetic interest, llow the old home near the 



2 8o Old Kentucky 

seaboard was abandoned for a habitation in the wild- 
erness ; how the log cabin gave shelter from the win- 
ter's storm, while the rifle of the pioneer protected 
his loved ones from wild beast and yet wilder men. 
How in time — with the advancing tide of civiliza- 
tion — the red man burned his last wigwam and sadly 
turned his footsteps toward the setting sun. How 
magnificent cities have sprung into being, and be- 
come the marts of busy trade. How, as if by the 
wand of magic, the vast forests have been trans- 
formed into splendid farms — the comfortable 
homes of civilized men. And all this during a pe- 
riod extending little beyond that of a single human 
life. And how Kentuclcy — where but a handful of 
the boldest frontiersmen were struggling for mastery 
with savage foe at the time of the formation of the 
Federal Government — now in these early years of 
the twentieth century contains a population two- 
thirds that of our entire country when Washington 
was inaugurated President. 

"More than all this, we glory in the fact that in 
the struggle for wealth and power, the claims of ed- 
ucation, of religion, of charity have not been for- 
gotten. Your schoolhouses, universities, churches 
asylums — institutions for the care and relief of the 
poor and the unfortunate — all bear witness to the 
glad fact, that the humane efforts of this people have 
kept even pace with material advancement and pros- 
perity. 

"As one standing, alas, 'upon the western slope,' 
let me adjure the young men of Kentucky to study 
thoroughly the history of their native State. It was 
the first after the original thirteen to effect State or- 
ganization, and the second to secure admission into 
the Federal Union. Its pathway from the beginning 
has been luminous with heroic achievements. In all 



The Home-Coming 281 

that constitutes true grandeur in a people, Kentucky 
knows no superior among the great sisterhood of 
States. Let me say to you, young men of my native 
State, it is high privilege and high honor to be a citi- 
zen of this great republic. It is, in very truth, a gov^- 
ernment of the people, in an important sense a gov- 
ernment standing separate and apart; its foundations 
the morality, the intelligence, the patriotism of the 
people. Never forget that citizenship in such a gov- 
ernment carries with it high responsibility that is per- 
sonal, one that you cannot evade. Study thoroughly 
the history of your country, how our liberties were 
achieved, and the benefits of stable government se- 
cured by the great compact which for more than a 
century — in peace and during the storm and stress of 
war — has held States and people in indissoluble 
union. And how during the great civil conflict — the 
most stupendous the world has ever known — human 
liberty through baptism of blood attained a new and 
grander meaning, and the Union established by our 
fathers was made, as we humbly trust in God, endur- 
ing for all time. 

''most illustrious of all sons 

"My fellow-citizens, I am honored by the invita- 
tion to speak on this, 'the Greatest Kentucky Day,' 
of the most illustrious of all the sons of this old com- 
monwealth. Of one, a Kentuckian by birth, by 
adoption an Illinoisan, and at all times — in its grand- 
est conception — an American. 

"And yet, when I would speak of Abraham Lin- 
coln, I am reminded of the embarrassment of the 
French orator, Bousset, when he pronounced his 
matchless eulogy upon the Prince of Conde. Said he, 
'When I open my lips to celebrate the immortal glory 



282 Old Kentucky 

of the Prince of Conde I find myself equally over- 
whelmed by the greatness of the theme and the need- 
lessness of the task. What part of the habitable 
globe has not heard of the wonders of his life? 
Everywhere they are rehearsed. His own countr}'- 
men in extolling them can give no information ev-en 
to the stranger.' Of Lincoln, nO' words can be ut- 
tered, nor withheld, that could add to or detract from 
his imperishable fame. His name is the common her- 
itage of all the people and all time. 

"He was born in the same year that witnessed the 
retirement of Jefferson and the inauguration of 
Madison as President. He came from the common 
walks of life — from what in other countries would 
be called the great middle class. His early home was 
one of the humblest, where he was a stranger to the 
luxuries of life. His opportunities for education 
were only such as were common in the remote habita- 
tions of our western country near one century ago. 
In the words of my neighbor and friend, Philips, one 
of the most eloquent of his eulogists, 'He lived with 
nature and learned of her. He toiled, but his toil 
was never hopeless and degrading. His feet were 
upon the earth, but the stars shining in perennial 
beauty were ever above him to inspire contemplation. 
He heard the song of the thrush and the carol of 
the lark. Fie watched the sun in its course. He 
knew the dim paths of the forest, and his soul was 
awed by the power of the storm.' 

"Under such conditions began a career that in 
grandeur and achievement has but a single counter- 
part in our history. And what a splendid commen- 
tary this upon our free institutions — upon the sub- 
lime underlying principle of popular government ! 
How inspiring to the. youth of noble aims every inci- 
dent of a pathway that led from the frontier cabin 



The Home-Coming 28 



o 



to the chief executive mansion, from the humblest 
station to the most exalted yet attained by man. 

"In no other country than ours could such attain- 
ment have been possible for the boys whose hands 
were inured to toil, whose bread was eaten under the 
hard conditions that poverty imposes; whose only 
heritage was brain, integrit>', lofty ambition, and in- 
domitable purpose. Let it never be forgotten, that 
the man of whom I speak possessed an integrity that 
could know no temptation, a purity of life that was 
never questioned, a patriotism that no sectional lines 
could limit, and a fixedness of purpose in great 
achievement that knew no shadow of turning. 

"The decade extending from our first treaty of 
peace with Great Britain to the inauguration of 
Washington has been truly denominated the critical 
period of our history. The eloquence of Adams and 
of Henry had precipitated revolution. The unfalter- 
ing courage of Washington and his comrades had se- 
cured independence, but the more difficult task of 
government was yet to be achieved. The hour for 
the constructive statesman had arrived, and James 
Madison and his associates — equal to the great 
emergency — formulated the Federal Constitution. 

"No less critical was the period that bounded the 
active life of the man whose memory we honor to- 
day. One perilous question to national unity for 
near three-quarters of a centuiy, the subject of re- 
peated compromise by patriotic statesmen ; the apple 
of discord producing sectional antagonism, whose 
shadow had darkened our national highway from 
the beginning — was now, for weal or woe, to find 
determination. Angry debate in the Senate and the 
forum was now hushed, and the supreme question 
that took hold of national life was to find enduring 
arbitrament in the dread tribunal of last resort. 



284 Old Kentucky 

"It was well known that in such an hour — with 
such tremendous issues in the balance — that a steady 
hand was at the helm ; that a conservative states- 
man — one whose mission was to save, not to de- 
stroy — was in the high place of responsibility and of 
power. It booted little then that he was untaught of 
schools, unskilled in the ways of courts, but was of 
supreme moment that he could touch responsive 
chords in the great American heart. All important 
that his very soul yearned for the preservation of the 
government established through the toil and sacrifice 
of the generation that had gone. How hopeless the 
republic in that half hour, had its destiny hung upon 
the statecraft of Talleyrand, the eloquence of Mira- 
beau or the genius of Napoleon. 

''the plain brave man 

"Fortunate, indeed, that the ark of our covenant 
was then borne by the plain, brave man of concilia- 
tory spirit, of kind words and whose heart — as Em- 
erson has said — 'was as large as the world, but no- 
where had room for the memory of a wrong.' 

"Nobler words have never fallen from human lips 
than the closing sentences of his first inaugural, ut- 
tered in one of the pivotal days of human history — 
immediately upon taking the oath to 'preserve, pro- 
tect and defend' his country, 'I am loath to close. 
We are not enemies but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords 
of memoi*y stretching from every battlefield and pa- 
triot's grave to every living heart and hearthstone 
all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of 
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will 
be, by the better angels of our nature.' 



The Home-Coming 285 

"In the light of what we now know so well, 
nothing is hazarded in saying that the death of no 
man has been to his country so irreparable a loss — 
one so grievous to be borne — as that of Abraham 
Lincoln. When Washington died, his work was 
done, his life well rounded out — save one, the years 
allotted had been passed. Not so with Lincoln. To 
him a grander task was yet in waiting — one no other 
could so well perform. The assassin's pistol proved 
the veritable Pandora's box from which sprung evils 
untold — whose consequences have never been meas- 
ured — to one-third of the States of our Union. But 
for his untimely death how the current of histoiy 
of this, our Southland, would have been changed — 
and many a sad chapter remained unwritten — is no 
mere matter of speculation. How earnestly he de- 
sired a restored Union, and that the blessings of 
peace and of concord should be the common heritage 
of ever)^ section is known to all. 

"When in the loom of time have such words been 
heard above the din of fierce conflict as his sublime 
utterances, but a brief time before his tragic death: 
'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 
let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind 
up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have bom the battle and for his widow and his or- 
phan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
and lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- 
tions.' 

"My fellow-citizens, the men who knew Abraham 
Lincoln, who saw him face to face, have, with few 
exceptions, passed the grave. Another generation 
is upon the busy stage. The book has forever closed 
upon the dread pageant of civil strife. Sectional ani- 
mosities, thank God, belong now only to the past. 



2 86 Old Kentucky 

The mantle of peace Is over our entire land and pros- 
perity within our borders. 

" 'The war drum ihrohs no longer, and the battle flags are furled, 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world.' 

"Through the instrumentality — in no small meas- 
ure — of the man born upon your soil, the government 
established by our fathers, 'untouched by the finger 
of time,' has descended to us. The responsibility of 
its preservation and transmission rests upon the suc- 
cessive generations as they come and go. To-day, 
at this auspicious hour — sacred to the memory of 
Lincoln — let us, his countrymen, inspired by the sub- 
lime lessons of his wondrous life and grateful to God 
for all He has vouchsafed to our fathers and to us 
in the past, take courage and turn our faces reso- 
lutely, hopefully, trustingly to the future. 

"I know of no words more fitting with which to 
close this humble tribute to the memory of Lincoln 
than those Inscribed upon the monument of Moliere, 
'Nothing was wanting to his glory; he was wanting 
to ours.' " 

June 1 6th was Daniel Boone's day, and a statue to 
the memory of the immortal hero was unveiled. 
And though Colonel Breckinridge Castleman and the 
incomparable Colonel Durrett made admirable ad- 
dresses, they seemed to feel that it was impossible 
to do justice to the memory of the great old hero 
who opened up beautiful Kentucky to the people be- 
yound the mountains. For purposes that a wise 
Providence seemed tO' have set apart this hero, he 
seemed to want no characteristic for success ; he was 
In every power a perfect man for the task set before 
him. By Instinct he seemed to know the way through 
the forests and he understood Indian character and 



The Honic-CowiHi^ 287 

Intrigue. Perhaps Kentucky, and indeed the whole 
Northwest, does not owe an equal measure of grati- 
tude to any other man. It is one of the sad things 
that a man of such wonderful endurance, skill, and 
fortitude in carrying out his task was not appreciated 
during his lifetime, nor for a long time after. He 
was almost crowded out of his beloved Kentucky by 
land-sharks and selfish men who came in after the 
danger was over. He wandered off to Missouri, 
where he spent the declining years of his life; but 
it is pleasant to know that his blood flows throuirh 
the veins of some of the best people living in this 
State. I have recently gone through a section of the 
State where Boone lived and died, and it seemed that 
I could almost feel the spirit of the grand old hero 
as I looked over the land where he lived, hunted, and 
died. 

But Daniel Boone needs no encomium; w^ords can- 
not portrav his life and character. He stands out as 
one man alone; almost as marked as Columbus, the 
discoverer of this counti-y. The exercises around his 
monument were of the most tender character. There 
were many of his descendants there who wept with 
pride over the deeds of their ancestor. Old Ken- 
tuckians, gathered there from all parts of the coun- 
try, stood around and cried like children; and the 
younger generation had such impressions made upon 
them that they will always revere Daniel Boone and 
teach their children to honor him. 

Whatever may be wanting in Kentuckians and 
however fierce they may be in battle or however 
daring in danger, they have a very strong religious 
instinct and respect for Christianity. When all the 
days appointed for the regular gathering passed ov^er, 
multitudes lingered in the city to spend the Sabbath, 
and the home-coming week was fittingly closed on 



288 Old Kentucky 

Sunday night by religious services held in the ar- 
mory and attended by 8,006 people. Most of the 
city churches were supplied by eminent visiting min- 
isters; and no day, perhaps, was more enjoyed than 
that Sunday. The motto of the last meeting was, 
"Till We Meet Again," and the old song was sung 
so that their very souls were stirred. "Their hearts 
filled to the breaking point by the touching and im- 
pressive words spoken by earnest and eloquent men. 
While almost stricken at the thought of parting, but 
uplifted, thrilled, and inspired by the marked solem- 
nity and deeply religious character of the occasion, 
8,000 home-comers and their Kentucky friends 
streamed slowly through the great doors of the ar- 
mory, with the words of the sacred song still on their 
lips. When the throng reached the street they still 
sang, and for five minutes after the great farewell 
meeting had heard the benediction pronounced the 
deeply appealing old song flowed out on the night 
air." The last meeting was the culmination of a re- 
markable week, and it is delightful to know that the 
pilgrims from thousands of shrines in other homes 
and other States brought their religion and fear of 
God with them. Grand old body of noble men and 
women ! May the tender mercies of a loving God 
keep you and yours, and when the great Home 
Gathering comes may we all meet again to enjoy 
eternal fellowship ! 



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